Ambition of Amendment with No Reason

196^th Session of the Diet was convoked on Monday. In the policy speech of the opening day, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his firm hope for amendment of Constitution of Japan. As constitutional amendment is not the matter of executive branch but the Diet, Abe did not refer to the details of which provisions should be changed. In short, he just wants to change any provision he can.

To explain his eagerness, Abe quoted an episode of flood control in Tenryu River one and a half century ago. “To preserve his village for the future generation, Meizen Kinbara planted trees around the river. Powerful guys cultivated the hills and planted young trees. The men good at tree climbing cut down unnecessary branches. And women and children removed ivy and weed. Each person joined the mission, exploiting his or her personal ability,” told Abe. He seemed to be appealing the correctness of his policies to mobilize all the people to his constitutional amendment.

Abe exploited euphemism in explaining necessity of the amendment. “We will create our country looking at the future 50 or 100 years later. It is constitution that tells shape or ideal appearance of a country. I expect that each party brings its concrete draft of constitution to the Diet, deepens the discussion and forwards it in Commissions on the Constitution,” Abe insisted.

His view for constitutional amendment can be questioned in some aspects. Why do we have to create new country with new constitution? Simple reason for Abe is because his Liberal Democratic Party upholds constitutional amendment from the time of founding, and he believes that LDP accepted overwhelming support in the elections. But the people just wanted to improve their life or economy, not requested changing their country into authoritarian regime supervised by governmental power. The LDP draft of new constitution in 2012 was giving the government great power to govern the people.

Abe’s argument is based on the notion that constitutional amendment is inevitable. That was because he and his political allies think that the amendment must be done under Abe administration. There is no reason that the people definitely want it. Dismissing the constitution, from which executive power of Prime Minister stems, is denial of his own status. It is just like rejection of one’s mother.

In LDP General Assembly of Diet Members before the session, Abe stressed that the time had come. “We are politicians and have a great responsibility to achieve it. It is the time for implementation. Let us be responsible,” argued Abe. So, why?