Japan Press Weekly

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2015 June 17 - 23 [POLITICS]

116 local assemblies across Japan adopt statements opposing war bills

Since the Abe administration submitted the war bills to the Diet last month, in 30 out of 47 prefectures in Japan, 116 assemblies at prefectural and municipal levels have adopted statements opposing the bills or calling for careful Diet deliberations on the bills. This was revealed in a survey that the Japanese Communist Party recently conducted.

Of the 116 assemblies, 67 municipal assemblies’ statements either clearly expressed opposition to the bills or demanded the scrapping of the bills.

In Nagano Prefecture, the Kijimadaira Village Assembly on June 11 adopted a statement objecting to the creation of the war legislation. Pointing out that the war bills will overturn the nation’s basic policy under the pacifist Constitution and will drastically change the characteristic of Japan as a pacifist nation renouncing war, the statement states that the bills are totally unacceptable.

A statement, which Fukushima’s Kawamata Town Assembly on June 10 unanimously adopted, quoted the three constitutional law scholars who testified at a hearing of the House of Representatives Commission on the Constitution early this month stating that the war bills are unconstitutional. The statement demanded that the government not abandon the current national security framework in violation of the Constitution.

As most local assemblies in Japan are now in session, the number of assemblies adopting a similar statement will likely increase.

Past related article:
> All constitutional scholars in parliamentary hearing criticize war legislation as unconstitutional [June 7, 2015]