4-19-07, 3:57 am

Fierce opposition to the Abe government's efforts to ram through parliament a bill that would allow it to eliminate antiwar provisions in Japan's Constitution prompted a demonstration of about 5,000 people April 13.

Protesters demanded a thorough and open discussion of the bill and called for defending Article 9, the section of the Constitution that outlaws participation in foreign wars.

A rally started at the Hibiya Amphitheatre in Tokyo followed by a protest march to the Diet Building, according to Akahata, the Japanese Communist Party's (JCP) daily newspaper.

Speaking at the rally, JCP Chair Kazuo Shii said, 'The ruling parties are eager to enact such an outrageous bill because they know that with a fair referendum system they could never gain the public support needed to change Article 9 and thereby turning Japan into ‘a country fighting wars abroad.’'

'They fear public opinion,” said Shii.

Ultra-nationalist members of Japan's parliament are planning the extremist revision of that country's constitutional prohibitions on war, according to Akahata.

Akahata described the parliamentary group as composed of members of the ruling parties affiliated with the Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi), a rightist pro-Yasukuni Shrine organization that is seeking to reestablish Japan as a military power.

The Yasukini Shrine is a monument to Imperial Japan's aims and efforts in World War II. The shrine also displays revisionist historical accounts of the war that downplay atrocities by the Japanese military in China and Korea and justify and glorify what the JCP calls a 'war of aggression.'.

Akahata has sharply criticized former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for visiting the shrine during their administrations. The visits are regarded as symbolic of their support for an ultra-nationalist agenda.

The right-wing parliamentary group, which included Prime Minister Abe prior to his succession to the premiership, and includes 12 of the 15 current cabinet members, intends to publicize its plans for the constitutional revisions on or before May 3, the day marking the 60th anniversary of the Japanese Constitution.

The revisions would eliminate popularly supported portions of the Preamble and sections of Article 9 which outlaw Japan's involvement in foreign wars. Abe's group is also insisting the new Constitution honor Imperial Japan's role in World War II.

Earlier this week, reports Akahata, at the plenary session of Japan's parliament, JCP Secretariat Head Tadayoshi Ichida called for scrapping the bill introduced by the ruling parties to allow a process for these constitutional revisions.

“It is clear that this bill is intended to create the necessary conditions for changing Article 9 that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is aiming at,' said Ichida, 'and thereby turning Japan into a country waging wars abroad.”

According to Ichida, Abe's government intends to use the constitutional revisions to give legal face to further tying Japan's military capabilities to President Bush's open-ended wars in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

Ichida also charged that the process itself was probably un-Constitutional. The bill was forced through the House of Representatives (Japan's main representative body) with limited debate and discussion and over the objections of many members of parliament – even by many who supported passage of the bill.

The bill must still pass the House of Councillors before it becomes law.

The Social Democratic Party also opposes passage of the bill.

--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at

| | |