2,000 people rally against bill to establish procedures for revising Constitution

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2,000 people rally against bill to establish procedures for revising Constitution

A rally in opposition to a bill to establish procedures for revision of the Constitution was held on March 2 at the Hibiya Amphitheater in Tokyo in a tense situation in which the Abe Cabinet is attempting to enact the bill as early as May 3, Constitution Day.

About 2,000 people from a wide range of civic, women, and religious groups took part in the rally and marched in demonstration toward the Diet, calling for the scrapping of the bill.

Representing the sponsor, Takada Ken pointed out that in these years many joint actions in defense of the Constitution have taken place and that a number of Article 9 Associations have been formed across the country. He called for further joint efforts to scrap the bill.

Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Kasai Akira and Democratic Socialist Party Chair Fukushima Mizuho spoke about the Diet situation.

Kasai stressed that the public opinion in opposition to a constitutional revision is so strong that pro-constitutional revision forces are faced with serious difficulties. Pointing out that the bill will establish such an undemocratic system that the support of only 20 percent of eligible voters would be enough to revise the Constitution, Kasai called on participants to make widely known to the public how outrageous the content of the bill is.

Suganuma Kazuo, Japan Federation of Bar Associations Constitution Committee Secretary General, talked about defects in the bill.

"Thanks to the Constitution, Japan has avoided waging war since the end of WWII," said Omura Shin'ichiro, 70-year-old Article 9 Association member in Kawasaki City. He denounced the Abe Cabinet for using shrewd tricks to make a constitutional revision easier by lowering the hurdles.
- Akahata, March 3, 2007