The leaders of Japan’s major political parties clashed Sunday over the future of the country’s Constitution and tax policy, two days before the start of official campaigning for the Oct 22 House of Representatives election. The eight-way debate at the Japan National Press Club in…
The leaders of Japan’s major political parties clashed Sunday over the future of the country’s Constitution and tax policy, two days before the start of official campaigning for the Oct 22 House of Representatives election.
The eight-way debate at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo was dominated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the Liberal Democratic Party, who has been in power since December 2012, and charismatic Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike, leader of the newly formed Party of Hope.
Both are going into the election on a conservative platform and support amending the 70-year-old Constitution for the first time.
But they disagreed on what should be the focus of the amendment debate, including how to reconcile the Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9 with the expanding role of the Self-Defense Forces.
Abe repeated that each party’s position should be discussed “constructively” in constitutional commissions in the Diet before an amendment is officially proposed and put to a nationwide referendum.
He had suggested in May that in addition to the existing clauses of Article 9, explicit mention of the SDF’s status should be added to remove any question that the existence of the SDF is unconstitutional.
Koike, who briefly served as defense minister in 2007 during Abe’s first administration, expressed “major doubts” about that proposal during the debate.
“(Abe’s) talk of adding a third clause…could reverse the relationship between the Defense Ministry and SDF,” she warned.
Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the LDP’s junior coalition partner Komeito, also expressed caution over the idea, saying the country is still divided over whether to put the SDF’s role in the Constitution.
While the LDP has made constitutional amendment one of its goals since its founding in 1955, Komeito, which is backed by the lay-Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, has always been more cautious.
“Without the full understanding of the public, it would be premature to ask them (to vote on an amendment),” Yamaguchi said earlier Sunday on a Japanese television program.
