Japan Press Weekly

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2013 August 21 - 27 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Abe rushes to revise constitutional interpretation

Following the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in the Upper House election in July, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is accelerating his move to enable the country to exercise the right to collective self-defense by changing the government’s interpretation of the Constitution.

The Abe Cabinet on August 8 decided to appoint as director general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau Komatsu Ichiro, former ambassador to France who supports Japan’s use of the right to collective self-defense.

Successive heads of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau have expressed in the Diet that the use of the right to collective self-defense goes against Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. The government’s official interpretation of the Constitution has also recognized it as unconstitutional.

Concerns over Abe’s aggressive move have been raised by former bureaucrats and even by advocates of constitutional revision.

Supreme Court Justice Yamamoto Tsuneyuki, who headed the Cabinet Legislation Bureau before Komatsu, commented on August 20, “I believe it is extremely difficult” to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense by changing the constitutional interpretation.

Yamazaki Taku, former vice president of the LDP who has called for constitutional revision, said in an interview in the Mainichi Shimbun on August 20, “Trying to revise the constitutional interpretation by switching the director general is like switching a referee in a sport contest who can give you an advantage.”