Japan Press Weekly

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2014 November 26 - December 2 [POLITICS]

LDP makes constitutional revision an election promise

The Liberal Democratic Party on November 25 published its election manifesto which specifies that the party will submit a draft constitution to the Diet and conduct a national referendum on constitutional revision.

The LDP asserts its ambition to implement amendments to the pacifist Constitution and to the war-renouncing Article 9.

The party’s draft constitution deletes the existing clause prohibiting possession of war potential from Article 9. Instead, Japan would possess national armed forces and place an obligation of national defense on the people, according to the LDP draft.

The LDP again calls for the relaxation of the requirements written in the existing provision of Article 96 for constitutional revision, which Prime Minister Abe had to give up on previously due to fierce public criticism.

The present Article 97 guaranteeing fundamental human rights disappears in the LDP draft.

The previous manifesto of the LDP at the time of the 2013 House of Councilors election promised only the submission of a draft constitution to the Diet. The election manifesto this time goes into further detail regarding the constitutional revision scheme.

However, a majority of the general public do not support the moves for constitutional revision. An opinion poll NHK conducted in July shows that 53.4% of respondents answered that diplomacy not relying on armed force is the most important tactic needed to be used to protect the peace of Japan. In contrast, only 9.4% said the most important thing is a deterrent relying on armed force. In the same poll, 76.5% of respondents appreciated the no-war provision of Article 9 for its contribution to peace in postwar Japan.