May 27, 2026

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

At a meeting of the House of Representatives’ Commission on the Constitution, discussions on a draft version of a constitutional “emergency clause” took place. However, the draft only provides the views and ideas of the revisionist forces, including the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which advocate the inclusion of emergency provisions in the Constitution.

The draft states that if emergencies make it difficult to maintain the functions of the Diet, the Cabinet may enact “emergency orders” legally equivalent to laws and execute a budget as “emergency financial measures”.

The draft also states that the Cabinet may extend Dietmembers’ terms with approval of the Diet in a situation where it is difficult to hold national elections for a considerable period of time due to ongoing emergencies.

As examples of emergency situations, the draft cites large-scale natural disasters, the spread of an infectious disease, and armed attacks from outside the country.

However, for more than 80 years since the end of the war, as was the case with the 2011 Great East Japan Disaster and the corona pandemic, there has been no situation too difficult to be addressed due to the lack of an emergency clause in the Constitution.

The pre-war Constitution of the Empire of Japan had provisions regarding emergency imperial ordinances and emergency financial measures. In 1928, the government used these emergency ordinances to crack down on people opposing Japan’s wars of aggression. It, for example, issued an emergency ordinance to revise the notorious wartime Public Order Maintenance Law to incorporate the death penalty. The government also abused emergency financial provisions to finance the aggressive war on the Korean Peninsula and in China.

Furthermore, in 1941, the government, citing national unity, extended Lower House members’ terms by one year with legislative measures, and entered the Pacific War.

For this reason, the post-war Constitution has no provisions for emergency powers. The terms of office for Dietmembers are explicitly stipulated in the Constitution, which limits the exercise of power, thereby thoroughly establishing popular sovereignty and democracy.

To add an emergency clause to the Constitution is part of the concerted attempts to turn Japan into a war-fighting nation and fundamentally undermine the pacifist spirit of the Constitution, which is totally unacceptable.