Japan Press Weekly

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2015 June 10 - 16 [POLITICS]

One ruling party lawmaker rebels against Abe’s war legislation

Among the lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which is aiming to enact the war legislation during the current Diet session, is one person standing up against the legislation.

Murakami Seiichiro, a member of the House of Representatives and former Minister in Charge of Administrative Reform, took part in a study meeting on June 10 which was organized by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) to discuss problems pertaining to the government-proposed war-related bills. The gathering was attended by nearly 200 people, including 30 parliamentarians of opposition parties such as the Japanese Communist and Democratic parties.

In the meeting, JFBA President Murakoshi Susumu called on participants to unite beyond political and ideological differences in order to kill the war bills, stressing, “War is the most extreme human rights violation as it deprives people of their right to live.”

Along with opposition party legislators, Murakami gave a speech.

He referred to a recent Diet hearing in which all the three summoned experts in constitutional law, including a scholar endorsed by the LDP itself, criticized the security bills as “unconstitutional”. Murakami condemned the governing party by saying, “It’s profoundly arrogant to pay no heed to their opinion.”

Murakami cited the historical fact that Hitler undermined the Weimar Constitution in 1933 by railroading the Enabling Act through the Parliament. He accused the Abe administration of insisting that its security bills are constitutional on the grounds that it went ahead and changed the conventional interpretation of the war-renouncing Japanese Constitution.

The former minister went on to point out that if these measures become law, young people will be sent to even the far side of the globe to engage in wars.

“My father (Murakami Shinjiro, a late Lower House member) was one of the people who had worked to create the National Police Reserve in 1952, the predecessor of the present Self-Defense Forces. Until he died, he had reiterated that ‘defense budgets should be as small as possible’ and that ‘authorities must take all possible measures to protect the lives of SDF personnel.’ What he said is my most important principle to uphold as a politician. To defend Japan’s democracy, I’ll continue to work together with many concerned citizens,” Murakami said.