LDP members quiz Abe’s reform push
TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent push toward a first-ever revision of Japan’s postwar pacifist Constitution continued to cause ripples in the political community on Thursday, with questions raised even by senior members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
“I don’t think the Constitution can be revised when only poor discussions are taking place. No way should a constitutional amendment be driven by impulse,” former Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is seen as a possible successor to Mr Abe as party leader, said at a meeting of a group of lawmakers he leads.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said at a separate gathering that his opinion has not changed from 2015 when he said he was against an immediate revision of the war-renouncing Article 9, although Mr Abe proposed the amendment of the article at a gathering to mark the 70th anniversary of the enforcement of the Constitution on May 3.
“I want to confirm in what ways my view differs from the prime minister’s remarks and in what ways it is the same,” Mr Kishida, who is a possible Abe successor, said.
In a video message shown at the gathering organised by pro-constitutional reform groups, Mr Abe, speaking as LDP leader, said he wants to see a “new” Constitution take effect in 2020 and called for adding a new clause to Article 9 making the existence of the Self-Defence Forces explicit.
But the proposal has triggered controversy, partly because the prime minister was seen as intervening excessively into ongoing deliberations at the parliament’s Constitution commissions.
Mr Abe also angered the main opposition Democratic Party by avoiding answering questions on constitutional issues from one of its lawmakers at a Diet committee Monday, telling him to “pore over the Yomiuri Shimbun” a conservative newspaper that ran an interview with Mr Abe on May 3.
Due to protests from the Democratic Party, the House of Representatives Constitution Commission meeting scheduled for Thursday was postponed.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said Mr Abe had no intention of “disrespecting the Diet” at a board meeting of the House of Representatives steering committee convened the same day.
Tsutomu Sato, head of the steering committee, said he was not able to find any similar examples in which government officials responded in the way Mr Abe did during Diet deliberations. “Both ruling and opposition parties agree that we want the government to answer questions in a respectful manner,” he said.
Mr Abe’s proposal on the Constitution also seems to have startled Komeito, the junior coalition ally of the LDP which is known for its dovish stance on defence issues.
“I feel it came about in an abrupt manner. He has plunged into this issue somewhat,” Yoshio Urushibara, a senior member of Komeito, told a press conference.
Mr Urushibara also said he wants to wait for discussions within the LDP to “straighten things out”, pointing to the “large difference” between Mr Abe’s proposal and the LDP’s past official papers on constitutional revisions.
Article 9 consists of two clauses — one saying that the Japanese people “forever renounce war” and the other saying that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained”.
While the SDF are not specifically mentioned in the article, the government has interpreted it as not prohibiting Japan from maintaining its ability to defend itself and thus allowing Japan to possess defence forces. But some constitutional scholars have said the SDF are unconstitutional.
In the video message, Mr Abe proposed making the existence of the SDF in Article 9 clear, while keeping the current two clauses intact, to ensure there is no room left for some scholars and lawmakers to call the SDF “unconstitutional”.
In a revision proposal worked out in 2012, which critics call highly conservative, the LDP left the phrase on the renunciation of war in Article 9 but removed the prohibition on the possession of “war potential” and changed the name of the SDF to one that implies it is a military force no different from that of other countries.
Mr Abe has said he made the proposal to spur discussions among political parties on a constitutional revision.