Japan Press Weekly

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2017 October 25 - 31 [POLITICS]

A9A calls for strengthening public movements to foil Abe’s constitutional revision attempt

October 28, 2017

Following to the general election results, the Article 9 Association on October 27 issued a statement emphasizing the need to strengthen grassroots movements to prevent Prime Minister Abe Shinzo from calling a national referendum on a constitutional amendment.

The statement notes that as a result of the October 22 election, more than 80% of the seats in the House of Representatives are occupied by political parties that seek to change Article 9, adding that the battle to defend the pacifist article has entered a new stage of confrontation.

A9A’s statement points out that Prime Minister Abe seeks to submit a constitutional revision draft to the ordinary session of the Diet in 2018 and put the draft to a national referendum in autumn the same year. It expresses concern that the general public are not yet sufficiently aware of the dangerous nature of Abe’s plan to legitimize the Self-Defense Forces through a constitutional amendment.

The statement stresses the importance of increasing public awareness of what Abe aims to do by cooperating with the nationwide citizens’ action group opposing Abe’s constitutional revision in its campaign to collect 30 million signatures in a petition opposing the move to revise Article 9. It stresses that grassroots efforts will block adverse constitutional revision from being passed in a national referendum.