This is the translated version of the Japanese editions (No.291~293 in December 2017). It is published by Katsuyuki Nara of the New English Teachers Association (or Shin-Eiken, http://www.shin-eiken.com/) and Stuart McLelland. The translation is on our own．
Uploaded December 23th English version No.205
Launch an all-out confrontation
against pro-constitutional revision forces
Latest events about Article 9
Nippon Kaigi held a rally to gear up for constitutional revision
On November 27th, Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference) and the Diet members who belong to the organization held a conference to commemorate its 20th anniversary, which can be seen as a rally to gear up for constitutional revision. About two thousand people including thirty Diet members of the LDP, Party of Hope, and Nihon-ishin-no-kai participated.
Prime Minister Abe sent a message to the rally, which said, “The Liberal Democratic Party will lead the discussion for constitutional revision at the Commission on the Constitution as the party responsible for the Japanese people. We are determined to fulfill this historical mission.”
Furuya Keiji, an LDP member of the House of Representatives and the newly elected chairman of Nippon Kaigi expressed his resolution, saying “It is Diet members’ responsibility to get a result and to realize constitutional revision. I would like each one of you who came to this rally from all over Japan to support us in a national movement to promote correct understanding of why constitutional revision is needed.”
Representatives of each participating party made a speech at the rally. Shimomura Hakubun, a former MEXT Minister and an advisor for the LDP’s Headquarters for the Promotion of Revision to the Constitution, stated, “We will try to submit our draft to the next ordinary session of the Diet so that we can discuss it at the Constitution Research Council next year.”
Matsuzawa Shigefumi of Party of Hope stated, “We will do everything we can to revise the Constitution.” Baba Nobuyuki of Nihon-ishin-no-kai stated, “We will lead the discussion for constitutional revision.” Sakurai Yoshiko, a joint representative of an organization called Utsukushii Nippon no kenpo o tsukuru kokumin no kai (Citizen's group for the creation of a Constitution for beautiful Japan), which has a close relationship with Nippon Kaigi, stated, “We must spend all our time on our campaign to revise the Constitution. In order to succeed, we must double our efforts to appeal to the people and create a positive sentiment toward constitutional revision all over Japan.”
The rally ended by adopting a declaration that states, “We are determined to promote an active national movement, appealing to younger generations to join in, with the aim of creating a nation that we can be proud of.”
Matsuda Yoshiaki’s remark, chairman of Nippon Kaigi’s federation of members of local assemblies:
“We decided to create an organization in each one of the 289 small constituencies in Japan to promote constitutional revision. The chairman of each electoral district branch of the LDP is responsible for the establishment of the organization. We, members of local assemblies, and you, members of Nippon Kaigi, can join in the group. Our enemy is the Article 9 Association and other advocates of protection of the Constitution. We must make our organization bigger and bigger to defeat them. We also decided to create various types of groups all over Japan other than the ones I have just mentioned. We are planning to hold a rally on May 3rd next year with all the groups to boost positive sentiment toward constitutional revision.”
Upper House constitution screening committee meets
On December 6th the constitution screening committee of the Upper House had a meeting for the first time this year. An LDP member said that they are studying how to clearly express the existence of the SDF in Article 9. Hope party member Matsuzawa Shigefumi and Ishin-no-ki party member Asada Hitoshi agreed with the LDP member.
Those for constitutional amendment outnumber those against it --- Kyodo Tsushin Public Opinion PollOn December 2nd and 3rd the firm conducted an opinion poll, whose results are
given below. (The percentage in brackets is from the previous poll.)
Those in favor of 36.0 % (39.4 %)
Those against 48.6 % (50.2 %)
Don't-know or No response 15.4 % (10.4 %)
(source: The Tokyo Shimbun)
LDP postpones intra-party determination of draft for constitutional revision
On December 20th LDP’s constitutional revision promotion headquarters held a plenary meeting and summarized the main points of issues that they had discussed. Previously they insisted on deciding the summary by the end of the year, but as a result of mounting voices against constitutional amendment, they seem to be obliged to postpone releasing their decision.
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