Koizumi backs off from amending constitution
Prime Minister Koizumi has employed all sorts of sleight-of-hand during his campaign for reelection as LDP leader and in the subsequent cabinet reshuffle. The result is that by and large he seems to have got his own way, despite the demands of new ally Mikio Aoki.
That all having being covered elsewhere, one footnote to the bluff and propaganda is this minor Kyodo News item (which I cannot at the moment find in Japanese) from yesterday. Having joined his other leadership candidates in saying that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the constitution needed revising, Koizumi has done a swift about-face and is apparently now of the opinion that "it would be difficult to raise an amendment to the constitution as a concrete political task". One assumes that either he is recanting a position which was briefly expedient but not his true view on things, or that concern from party heavyweights such as Makoto Koga, who in a speech yesterday referred to the need for revisions based on the idea of a "pacifist constitution" has forced a retraction out of him.
[Wrote the following on September 17 and didn't have time to polish and post, but am including anyway for completeness]
There has been a little flurry over the last few days of comments by politicians on the need to revise the celebrated Article 9 of Japan's constitution, the so-called "anti-war" article. The four candidates for the LDP leadership all stated as much, each of course putting their own slant on the issue, in TV interviews over the weekend. Another minister, Yoshitada Konoike, weighed in at a press conference around the same time with his riff that the Self-Defence Forces are currently unconstitutional and that Article 9 should be amended to recognise them as the army they obviously are. Defence minister Ishiba has added obliquely to the chorus by continuing to mention at every opportunity his view that a preemptive attack on North Korea would be constitutional.
This debate seems to flare up every once in a while when the wind is blowing in a particular direction or the Nikkei average is up and all seems right with the world, and it may be that this time is no exception. For certain, all the LDP leadership candidates are doing their fair share of tubthumping on all sorts of issues as the elections draw near; however, it is perhaps worth noting that, as in the UK, the elections for party leader are voted for within the party, so whatever spin the candidates put on the issues ultimately has to find favour internally.
More broadly, one suspects the intention is to be seen to be a strong (potential) boss by rattling the sabre at North Korea, toward which the rhetoric of Japan's leaders has admittedly been unsatisfyingly meek thus far.
One does hope, though, that common sense will prevail. Article 9 could obviously do with revising, since under the letter of the article the Self-Defence Forces should not exist; but care should be taken to ensure that a revision is not used as an excuse to slip in all sorts of militaristic crap. North Korea needs keeping in line, certainly; but officially remilitarising Japan is not the way to go about it.
Posted by aragoto at September 24, 2003 02:49 PM | TrackBack