The Liberal Democratic Party is poised to ramp up efforts to nudge the opposition parties into starting genuine discussions on constitutional amendment in the Diet, as the ruling party tries to make its own proposed revisions to the top law a reality.
Much will hinge on the results of this summer's House of Councillors election, and all eyes will be on whether political forces supportive of constitutional amendment can retain at least two-thirds of the chamber's seats -- the minimum needed for the Diet to initiate changes to the supreme law.
The LDP released a statement Friday, the first Constitution Day of the Reiwa era, that spelled out its determination to push ahead with constitutional changes. The statement said leading discussions on constitutional amendment was "our party's duty" and expressed its resolve to work with the nation's people to "build a country that was proud and full of hope in the Reiwa era."
Recently, the LDP has concentrated on raising public awareness of the issue. Hakubun Shimomura, chairperson of the party's Headquarters for the Promotion of Revision of the Constitution, and other officials have given speeches around the nation, and the party is setting up promotional headquarters at each of its 289 electoral district branches for single-seat constituencies in the House of Representatives. These headquarters will be bases for promotional activities, and the LDP plans to boost the dissemination of information online and through public speeches during the buildup to the upper house election.
This promotional push is aimed at obtaining cooperation from opposition parties, against a backdrop of public support, for the House of Councillors Commission on the Constitution and the House of Representatives Commission on the Constitution to start discussions on the top law.
In March 2018, the LDP announced its proposal for constitutional amendments on four issues, the centerpiece of which was clearly stipulating the existence of the Self-Defense Forces. The LDP hoped to present these proposals to the commissions to deepen debate on the issues and reach a broad agreement. However, the LDP was unable to win the support of many opposition parties, and the proposals have yet to be submitted.
The lower chamber's commission held its first meeting of this Diet session on April 25 -- about three months after the session started. Even then, substantive discussions were not held, and it decided only to hold a May 9 question-and-answer session with experts on advertising restrictions during the run-up to a national referendum on constitutional revision.
The LDP urged that this question-and-answer session be followed by questioning on a bill to revise the National Referendum Law on which deliberations are continuing, after which a vote on the bill would be held. However, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the contact for negotiations with the opposition bloc on this issue, has deferred making a reply.
As the summer election draws closer, opposition parties are expected to harden their combative stance and the standstill in the constitution commissions will likely continue. Consequently, the LDP is preparing to accelerate discussions after the election is done and dusted.
2/3 majority center of attention
The ruling parties and pro-constitutional reform political forces such as Nippon Ishin no Kai hold at least two-thirds of the seats in both Diet houses. Amending the top law became a distinctly realistic possibility when these forces secured a two-thirds majority in both chambers after the 2016 upper house election. On Constitution Day in 2017, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also is LDP president, touched on his goal of having a "new constitution" come into effect in 2020.
However, Diet discussions on the top law have made little progress and Abe's objective has become difficult to achieve because many opposition parties are extremely wary of realizing constitutional amendments spearheaded by the LDP. Moreover, forging a two-thirds majority is not an easy task because even forces supportive of altering the top law have different objectives, and their views are split on the specifics of any amendments.
Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner, has also heavily emphasized the need for a broad agreement on constitutional changes and has pressed the LDP to tread carefully.
"If new values are formed, they should be added to the Constitution," Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi said during a public speech in Tokyo's Shinjuku district Thursday. Yamaguchi explained that his party advocates adding to the existing Constitution where needed, but did not mention the LDP's proposed changes or Diet discussions.
Within the ruling parties, some members even believe losing seats could prod the revision process. "Losing the two-thirds majority would encourage the ruling and opposition parties to compromise, which ultimately could help the discussions move forward."
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