Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 2 - 8 [PEACE]

Develop public opinion against right to collective self-defense: Article 9 Association

Initiators of the Article 9 Association on October 7 published an appeal calling for public opposition to be raised against the Abe Cabinet’s move to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

The appeal was released by Oe Kenzaburo (Nobel Prize writer), Okudaira Yasuhiro (constitution scholar), and Sawachi Hisae (writer) at a press conference in Tokyo.

It points out that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo “has begun his outrageous pursuit to change the government’s constitutional interpretation regarding the right to collective self-defense in order to turn Japan into a war-fighting nation.” Criticizing him for trying to realize this without having discussions in the Diet or holding a national referendum, it stresses that such an attempt “is intended to destroy the foundation of constitutionalism and should never be tolerated.”

The appeal calls on its members to increase grassroots actions in order to block this move.

At the press conference, Oe said that the prime minister refers to constitutional revision as his “historical task”. Having more than 7,000 branches determined to defend Article 9, the association has the strength to put a stop to this move, he said.

Okudaira pointed out that the war-renouncing Article 9 has been protected by citizens’ efforts to maintain the peaceful nation. He condemned the government for trying to undermine the Constitution amid the mounting public criticism against the move to relax procedural requirements for constitutional revision set under Article 96.