Damage of Security Bills

Protest against new security laws looks not to have ceased after weeks from forcible procedure in the Diet conducted by leading parties, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Polls indicated that more people did not positively accept Abe’s reshuffling of his Cabinet. His new economic agenda, “Wholly Active A Hundred Million,” was not popular. Abe administration does not show resilience from unilateral initiative in the security issue.

A poll operated by Mainichi Shimbun found that 47% of the people did not positively evaluate reshuffling of Abe Cabinet, surpassing 39% of the approvers. Approval to Abe Cabinet rose by 4 points to 39%, reducing non-approval by 7 points to 43%. In the survey by Kyodo News Agency, the approval increased by 6 points as much as 45%, while non-approval declined by 9 points to 41%. Abe’s scheduling of Cabinet reshuffling right after passage of the security bills seemed to achieve certain success.

It is still unclear whether the reshuffling strategy fully worked. In Mainichi poll, 57% of the subjects did not positively evaluate new security legislation, while the 31% approved. The tendency against the legislature has not changed from previous survey last month right after the passage of the bills. Consistent frustration among the people appeared in the result that the 57% would consider the passage of security bills in their voting in coming election of the House of Councillors next summer, while the 32% would ignore.

Protest against the security legislation continues. Civil groups marched around the Official Residence of Prime Minister in Tokyo last Friday, raising banner of “Let’s Make Supporters Fail in Election.” One professor of University of Tokyo proposed broad movement to decrease the seat of Abe’s supporters in the Diet. His proposal included questioning open to the public why the legislator approved the security bills, how would he/she say against argument of unconstitutionality of the bills, and how could he/she have preserved constitutionalism about the passage of the legislation.

Abe is focusing his political agenda on amendment of the Constitution of Japan after the election next summer. Achieving two-third majority in the House of Councillors can pave the way to take initiative for the amendment. However, Japanese citizens are not ready for giving up its post-war pacifism through abolishing Article 9 of the Constitution, which renounces war as a way to settle international conflicts. Wind still blows against Abe.