Japan Press Weekly

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2017 May 31 - June 6 [POLITICS]

Liaison council of independent unions submits 140,000 signatures opposing Article 9 amendment to Diet

A liaison committee that aims to tie independent trade unions together on the issue of maintaining the pacifist Constitution on May 30 held a rally in the Upper House members’ office building and submitted to the Diet about 140,000 signatures opposing revision of the Constitution.

Founded in 2004, the liaison consists of 12 unions unaffiliated with any national center.

The trade union liaison launched a campaign for collecting “signatures to block changing the war-renouncing Constitution” last June. Over 500,000 signatures in total have been submitted to the Diet by the liaison, including the 140,000 signatures this time.

On behalf of the organizer, Morito Fumio, a vice chair of the Faculty and Staff Union of Japanese Universities (Zendaikyo), gave a speech and said “Prime Minister Abe proposed adding a new clause which legitimizes the Self-Defense Forces to Article 9 of the Constitution. Under this situation, our signature campaign and efforts for increasing public awareness are crucially important. Let us make the signature campaign a success!”

A representative of the Japan Federation of Aviation Worker’s Union (Kohkuren) said “Japan Airlines (JAL)’s charter service transported SDF members who were assigned new and dangerous tasks based on the unconstitutional national security legislation to South Sudan’s neighboring countries. If a situation where Japan needs to exercise the right to collective self-defense occurs, the commercial aircraft that transports SDF personnel could be a target of armed attacks. We want to exert all our efforts to maintain peace and stability.”

Japanese Communist Party Lower House member Akamine Seiken, Democratic Party Lower House member Kondo Shoichi, Social Democratic Party Upper House member Fukushima Mizuho, and Liberal Party Lower House member Tamaki Denny also participated in the rally.