JCP Ichida on the 63rd anniversary of the Constitution

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP Ichida on the 63rd anniversary of the Constitution

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on May 3 issued a statement on the Constitution Day as follows:

1. We see this year’s Constitution Day under the situation in which the Liberal Democratic-Komei rule was to put to an end in the House of Representatives general election last summer marking the first step toward a “new period” in Japanese politics. The JCP will work hand in hand with the people to further this situation and realize a form of politics that will work to meet people’s expectations, giving priority to improving living conditions.

2. Moves toward constitutional revision are now faced with difficulties because of popular struggles in opposition. The number of members of the Parliamentary League to Promote the Enactment of a New Constitution, which is playing a leading role in the constitutional revision movement, decreased by two-thirds in the last general election, from 139 to 53. The general election also changed the relationship between those supporting and those opposing a revision of Article 9. According to a recent poll, 51 percent of Dietmembers oppose the revision while 34 percent support (Mainichi Daily News, September 1, 2009). The Deliberative Council on the Constitution which was forcibly set up in the House of Representatives for mal-revision of the Constitution has not yet begun to function.

Thus, the attempt at constitutional revision which once seemed to go ahead with rapidity, is now faltering in the face of public opposition. Let us deepen our conviction that this situation has been created in large part by the strength of our movements, keeping in mind that the move for mal-revision of the Constitution has not completely disappeared.

3. It is serious that there are moves to pull the teeth from the constitutional principles of democracy and peace in new ways. We must particularly note that the Democratic Party of Japan aims at a “Diet reform” which would decisively weaken the Diet’s right to investigate into national politics and supervise administrative organizations. The DPJ-proposed “Diet reform” would make the role of the Diet as the “highest organ of state power” pro forma. It is also intended to prohibit the Cabinet Legislation Bureau director-general from responding to questions in the Diet, under the pretext that he/she is a bureaucrat. This is in line with their attempt to discard the traditional government interpretation of the Constitution that “the use of force outside of Japan is unconstitutional.” We must not allow such an adverse “Diet reform.”

4. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. The future course of Japan is being fundamentally called into question. In particular, the administration that is unwilling to listen to public opinion opposing foreign military bases remaining in the country even 65 years after the end of the Second World War is called into question. Is it permissible for the government to shut its ears entirely to the demand to remove U.S. military bases from Japanese soil? 90,000 people, regardless of ideological and political differences, gathered together for the Okinawa prefectural people’s rally to oppose the relocation of the Futenma base within the prefecture. In Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, a candidate site that the government is considering for a new base for Futenma base, a rally in opposition to the government plan was held, and 60 percent of island residents attended. The government attempts to relocate the base within Japan has reached a deadlock.

The JCP will continue to make utmost efforts to have the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty abrogated, and work to build a truly independent and peaceful Japan without nuclear weapons or foreign military bases, with the constitutional principles of peace, human rights and democracy fully applied.

- Akahata, May 3, 2010