Let's file a lawsuit every day until SDF will return from Iraq

Calling for the withdrawal of the Self-Defense Forces from Iraq, Tokyo citizens began a campaign to file "one lawsuit every day" against the state with the Tokyo District Court, maintaining that the SDF dispatch violates Article 9 of the Constitution.

This series of suits will continue until the day when all SDF personnel return home from Iraq. This action follows similar suits filed by former Posts and Telecommunications Minister Minowa Noboru with the Sapporo District Court in Hokkaido, and by as many as 1,262 citizens in Aichi Prefecture with the Nagoya District Court.

Maeda Tetsuo, professor at Tokyo International University, issued a file on March 17 as a lead-off plaintiff in Tokyo. At a press conference he said, "Now that it violates the United Nations Charter and the Constitution's Article 9, the SDF must be withdrawn from Iraq." He expressed solidarity with the March 20 Global Day of Action.

Tokyo's Christian peace organizations and various citizens groups organized the daily-basis court struggle by establishing an association on the same day. (end)