People can be protected by the Constitution, not by the contingency law: JCP

Japanese Communist Party representative Yoshioka Yoshinori in the House of Councillors Special Committee on Iraq and Contingency pointed out that the government mistakenly proposed war-related contingency bills, neglecting to make efforts to achieve the ideals of the peace Constitution.

Yoshioka made this statement on June 14, the day the ruling parties and the Democratic Party of Japan used their force of numbers to adopt the controversial contingency bills. Yoshioka's remarks were applauded by lawmakers of the other parties.

He criticized the government for rushing to enact the contingency bills by stirring up a sense of crisis about possible foreign attacks on Japan. He pointed out that such an assumption contradicts the government position that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty prevents foreign aggression.

He asked, "Can the contingency legislation protect the lives and property of the people from danger as in the Okinawa ground war or the major air raid on Tokyo?" Inoue Kiichi, minister in charge of contingency, responded, "There is no simple answer."

Yoshioka said that contingency legislation is intended to give a concrete shape to the Japan-U.S. joint operational setup agreed on by Japan and the United States in 1996 and the "Japan-U.S. alliance in a global context" agreement of May 2003. Yoshioka said the government should not have proposed such bills. (end)