07309
May 24, 2007

Japanese lambaste law that could change peace constitution 

by Hisashi Yukimoto
Ecumenical News International

TOKYO — Religious activists backed by Christians, along with citizens’ groups, are furious about a new law allowing for a referendum to seek an amendment to Japan’s peace-favoring constitution, passed by the upper chamber in Japan’s parliament, the Diet. 
 
     “I have am enraged by this [enactment],” the Rev. Toshimasa Yamamoto, general secretary of the National Christian Council in Japan, told Ecumenical News International after law was agreed on May 15.  
 
     The Christian council expressed its concern in a statement, saying the law was aimed at  changing Article 9 of the constitution, a war-renunciation clause, to “make Japan a country that can make war.” 
 
     The new law stipulates the way in which the constitution may be changed if at least half the voters express support for this in a national referendum.  
 
     Japan’s constitution, which consists of 103 articles based on the principles of human rights, the people’s sovereignty, and the renunciation of war, has never been amended since it came into effect in 1947 after the allied victory in the Second World War.

     The wording of the constitution was imposed on Japan by the United States after the war.  
 
     Still, Japan has been able to build up a military force of around 250,000, but this is known as the Self-Defense Forces, some of whom have served in Iraq in non-combat roles. 
 
     In November 2005, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, announced a proposal to allow for amending the constitution that would seek to have the Self-Defense Forces renamed as a constitutionally-declared military. 
 
     Bishop Goro Matsuura, chairperson of the Japan Catholic Council for Peace and Justice, warned that the new law would lower the hurdle required to change the constitution and should not be tolerated.  
 
     “Basic human rights and human dignity are religious terms, and [the goal of] world peace in the Constitution, is very Christian and religious,” Matsuura told Ecumenical News International. “The referendum law shows there is an intent to impose conditions on dignity and basic human rights and to change Article 9 of the constitution. That is a very big problem.”