The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abe’s party squabbles over altering pacifist constitution
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to revise the American-written, postwar constitution has hit its first stumbling block, with his own party unable to agree on how to change the clause that has kept the country pacifist for the past seven decades.
Even as lawmakers within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party wrangle with how to update the war-renouncing Article 9, the prime minister is pressing ahead with efforts to strengthen Japan’s military by buying American weapons, as encouraged by President Donald Trump.
Abe’s defense minister has requested a budget totaling $46 billion, or 2.5 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product, for next year, far exceeding the long-standing 1 percent cap. A big part of the increase would be to buy American-made long-range cruise missiles capable of striking enemy bases — a controversial move while Japan is still bound by the constitution to act only in defense.
Now, following his victory in snap elections in October, Abe is pushing ahead with a long-cherished desire to revise the constitution, which was imposed on Japan by the U.S. occupation forces after the country’s defeat in World War II.
“Abe’s efforts at constitutional revision would be a watershed moment in an ongoing, decadeslong process in which conservatives have moved Japan in the direction of what they see as a more ‘normal’ country,” said Jennifer Lind, a Japan expert at Dartmouth College.
The efforts are also controversial in the region. China probably will protest the changes as Japan “remilitarizing,” so Abe should take care to frame constitutional revision as a way to ensure the balance of power in the region, Lind said.
“If Abe and other conservatives discuss constitutional revision amidst rhetoric about ‘making Japan great again,’ that would not only alarm China, it would alarm a lot of people in the region and the world — including those who are currently predisposed to trust Japan,” she said.
In his five years as prime minister, Abe has led an effort to “reinterpret” the constitution to allow Japanese troops to fight overseas to aid the United States, its ally, and has permitted some military exports.
Now, he has directed a special committee to come up with a draft revision of the constitution.
This would require the support of two-thirds of both houses of the Diet, or parliament — both of which the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito control — and approval by a majority of the public in a referendum.
The most controversial part is the two-paragraph Article 9. The first paragraph says “the Japanese people forever renounce war,” while the second says Japan will not maintain “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential.”
As a result, Japan does not technically have a military, instead operating “self-defense forces” that are allowed to act only if the country comes under attack.
Abe wants to add a third paragraph to this article, to recognize and legitimatize the existence of the self-defense forces.
Even within the LDP, there are sharp divisions over this proposal, said Hajime Funada, acting chairman of the LDP’s constitution revision panel.
“We can’t come up with a draft that everybody agrees with,” Funada said in an interview in his office. Almost two-thirds of the LDP members support the prime minister’s idea to add a third paragraph, but the remainder say this would contradict the existing ban on “war potential.”
The LDP is trying to forge a consensus among its members before taking its proposal to Komeito, a party with Buddhist roots that has had to compromise its pacifist principles in government.
Many in Komeito question why the constitution needs to be revised.
“We don’t really feel the need to revise Article 9 now, and we’re wondering if there’s any urgency,” said Kazuo Kitagawa, who leads Komeito’s panel on constitutional issues. “We don’t consider the self-defense forces to be unconstitutional, and I think most Japanese don’t, either.”
With the LDP struggling to reach a consensus, let alone persuade its junior coalition partner, the effort has fallen behind Abe’s ambitious schedule to revise the constitution by 2020.