Japan Press Weekly

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2016 February 3 - 9 [POLITICS]

A9A denounces PM Abe for trying to destroy war-renouncing Constitution

Representatives of the Article 9 Association (A9A) held a news conference in the Diet building on February 8, releasing a statement in protest against Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s remarks that he will work to revise Clause 2 of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which pledges to abandon war potential for good.

In recent deliberations in the Diet, PM Abe repeatedly expressed his intent to turn the clause into one which allows the possession of “national defense forces”, saying, “70% of constitutional scholars entertain doubts that the existence of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) conflicts with the Constitution.”

At the press conference, Komori Yoichi, the A9A’s secretary-general and a professor at the University of Tokyo, read out the statement criticizing Abe’s intent as “self-seeking”. Quoting PM Abe as saying that he wants to add a “state of emergency” clause to the Constitution, it condemns the prime minister for turning his back on his obligation to respect and uphold the Constitution.

Nonfiction writer Sawachi Hisae, one of the association founders, noted that if Article 9 is crippled, it means the end of Japan’s postwar history in which Japanese people have neither killed nor been killed in wars for over 70 years. “It’s time to take action to block the path to war at the risk of our lives,” she stressed.

Hitotsubashi University Professor Emeritus Watanabe Osamu, also an A9A member, pointed out that PM Abe’s remarks have made it clear that Article 9 is still alive and is working as an “obstacle” to mobilizing the SDF for U.S.-led wars even after the war legislation was enacted. He called for the public to work in order to protect Article 9 as well as abolish the unconstitutional war legislation.