Japan Press Weekly

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2015 February 4 - 10 [POLITICS]

Abe plans to initiate constitutional revision after 2016 Upper House election

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo held talks with an executive of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on February 4, confirming that they will work together to initiate an amendment to the Japanese Constitution after the Upper House election slated for the summer of 2016.

This is the first time that Abe voiced a concrete schedule for constitutional revision. He harbors the ambition to turn Japan into a war-capable nation by changing the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.

An amendment to the Constitution requires the support of at least two-thirds of all the members of both Diet chambers and a favorable vote of 50% or more in a subsequent national referendum. The governing coalition of the LDP and Komei Party meets this requirement in the lower chamber, but falls short in the upper chamber.

After the talks, Funada Hajime, head of the LDP Constitutional Reform Promotion Headquarters, told reporters that his party will start discussions regarding which part of the Constitution should be revised first.

Recent opinion polls show that a majority of the general public opposes the revision of Article 9. Under such circumstances, Abe and the LDP have mapped out a strategy to gradually have the public get used to constitutional revisions by picking people-friendly issues such as “environmental rights” in the first stage.

In July last year, the Abe government arbitrarily changed the conventional interpretation of the Constitution and approved a Cabinet decision which lifts the ban on Japan’s use of the right to collective self-defense. The administration is now working to prepare security-related bills in line with the Cabinet decision.

Meanwhile, experts in constitutional law argue that environmental rights are contained in Article 13 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to pursue happiness. There is no need to add environmental rights to the supreme law.

We need to remind ourselves that Abe and his party are trying to restart idled nuclear reactors across the country while the Fukushima nuclear crisis has yet to be brought under control. They are not qualified to talk about the right to protect the environment.


Past related article:
> What motivates Abe to change Constitution? [January 20, 22 & 23, 2015]