Raising Amendment for Campaign

Asahi Shimbun reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decided to include amendment of Article 9 of Constitution of Japan in the campaign promise of Liberal Democratic Party in the election of House of Representative next month. As he announced in May, the amendment would be adding status of Self-defense Force in the Constitution. It is likely that the election will be a sort of referendum on constitutional amendment.

The Headquarters of Promoting Constitutional Amendment in LDP has been discussing the draft of the amendment in line with Abe’s announcement, which was leaving Paragraph 1 and 2 of Article 9 untouched and add a provision for legitimacy of Self-defense Force. Although the draft was to be submitted to extraordinary session of the Diet later this month, Abe decided to dissolve the House of Representatives on the opening day. Having lost an opportunity for discussion, the headquarters reached a consensus of including the draft in campaign promise.

The second paragraph of Article 9 prohibits maintenance of “land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential.” In the question whether Self-defense Force is force or not, it has to be force. If the amendment adds another paragraph about Self-defense Force, it will contradict with the second paragraph. Former Minister of Defense, Shigeru Ishiba, opposes that amendment as not reasonable, upholding deletion of current two paragraphs.

Democratic Party has been opposing constitutional amendment under the leadership of Abe. Although new President, Seiji Maehara, is one of the supporters of the amendment generally, he froze his argument to avoid internal quarrels. DP rather focuses on welfare, education or social security. Maehara criticized Abe’s policy of using additional revenue from consumption tax hike for education as DP’s original.

DP explores election cooperation with other opposite parties including Japan Communist Party. While DP decided to raise candidates in 214 districts out of all 289, JCP already has its own candidates in 263 districts. To establish a firm cooperation, each party has to reduce their candidates. In addition, integration in policy is harder than controlling the candidates.

The leader of Japan First, Masaru Wakasa, and former Minister of Environment, Goshi Hosono, who left DP earlier this month, are discussing to establish a new party. While they agree on necessity of amending the Constitution, it is hard for them to wrap up major party policies for campaign platform before the election. Their movement only contributes to victory of Abe administration.