Japan Press Weekly

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2014 February 5 - 11 [POLITICS]

PM Abe once more seeks easier way to change pacifist Constitution

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on February 4 again expressed his intention to revise Article 96 of the Japanese Constitution, which stipulates the procedures required to amend the supreme law.

Responding to a question from a parliamentarian of the right-wing opposition Japan Restoration Party (JRP) at a Lower House Budget Committee session, Abe said, “If a majority of the population want constitutional amendment, it should be wrong for the Diet to reject the demand with opposition from only one-third of the Dietmembers.”

Article 96 provides that constitutional amendments must be initiated by the Diet with endorsement from at least two-thirds of the members of both the Lower and Upper houses. The motion is then to be put on a national referendum.

The questioner at the session was JRP Diet Affairs Committee Chair Ozawa Sakihito, who also serves as the acting chair of the Dietmembers’ league for the amendment of Article 96. PM Abe is a senior advisor to the league. The chair of the organization is National Public Safety Commission Chair Furuya Keiji. This is an odd structure in which those in power are taking the lead in freeing themselves from the restraints of the Constitution.

They call for changing the article in order to enable the Diet to initiate amendments with support of more than half of the members of both the chambers. Their final goal is to revise the war-renouncing Article 9 and turn Japan into a war-fighting country.

The top law has strict requirements for changing itself so that individual liberties can be protected from abuses by a political majority. The prime minister needs to learn this principle first.


Past related article:
> JCP pledges to defend Article 96 of Constitution [May 3, 2013]