Japan Press Weekly

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2022 December 7 - 13 [POLITICS]

Nationwide action held to oppose Kishida gov’t’s huge military buildup and constitutional revision

Seeking to increase public opposition to the Kishida government’s attempt to implement a huge military buildup and constitutional revision, peace activists on December 8, the day marking 81 years since the beginning of the Asia-Pacific War, carried out street campaigns in many places across Japan.

In Tokyo, the Japan Mothers’ Congress organizing committee and the Japan Peace Conference organizing committee held a street speech event near Yurakucho Station.

In the event, organizing committee members handed out copies of the “red slip”, the call-up-notice used in Japan during the war, to passersby and asked them for cooperation in a signature drive calling for opposition to adverse constitutional revision.

Using a microphone, Japan Federation of Women’s Organizations (Fudanren) President Shibata Masako criticized the Kishida government’s attempt to add an enemy-strike capability to Japan’s security policy and shift away from the “exclusively defensive defense” policy. She also criticized the government for intending to slash the budgets for people’s livelihoods, education, and welfare services in order to finance a huge military buildup. Stating that an arms race never leads to peace, Shibata said, “Let us work for true peace in East Asia with the full utilization of Article 9 of the Constitution!”

Secretary General of the Japan Peace Committee Chisaka Jun said that Article 9 of the Constitution declares Japan’s determination to renounce war and take a lead in global efforts to create peace through diplomacy.

Maki Yuko of the New Japan Women’s Association pointed out that the Kishida government, while planning to increase Japan’s military budget to 43 trillion yen in five years, shows reluctance to spend more for measures to support people’s livelihoods. She stressed the need for a change in government in order to reassess the ways in which tax revenue is used.

Japan-China Friendship Association Vice President Onishi Hiroshi appealed for the need to establish diplomacy based on Japan’s remorse over its past mistakes. National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) Vice President Maeda Hiroshi said that the need is for Japan to make diplomatic efforts, not to strengthen its military capabilities.