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© Thomson Reuters 2021.LDP lawmakers seek emergency clause for constitution to deal with crises
By Linda Sieg TOKYO©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
27 Comments
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kurisupisu
The Japanese government should never gain one more iota of power over the people....never!
Cricky
I don't think a lack of an emergency clause is the reason the COVID-19 response has not gone well. The problem is incompetent politicians," said Keio University professor Satoshi Yokodaido.
Exactly and giving these incompetent elite more power is certainly not going to solve anything. Just create more problems they can’t deal with in an intelligent or mature manner.
Hiro
Too slow in doing everything because how restricted they are. Laws need to be more loosen as we had seen most other nations had done during their handling of covid. Civilian has too much rights and asking them instead of forcing it clearly is no longer working.
snowymountainhell
Some really“sneaky buggers”:
Alfie Noakes
Jolly old LDP. Never waste a good crisis or spurn an opportunity to destroy democracy and human rights in Japan.
https://amara.org/en/videos/Sn9Zc0UeRQzF/en/1405913/3792355/
Mark
""fresh calls by lawmakers in Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Liberal Democratic Party for a constitutional amendment allowing the cabinet to limit civil rights in a national emergency.""
NO THANK YOU, the Japanese people know very well the cost of giving such powers to the cabinet, Japan is doing well as is and does NOT need a new dictatorship.
Politik Kills
No hurry, take your time.
thaonephil
Doing it was reasonable... maybe a year ago. Doing it right now seems much more just a political move without any intention to produce results.
blue in green
As a non citizen resident, I have no voting power...
But I hope the people of Japan will vote NO to such ludicrousness.
Under the guise of "safety" another nation changed its constitution...
It made tyranny legal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree
Sam Watters
I knew it! Here is comes! The power grab! What defines "emergency"? "Covid" which has killed less people than than a number of other maladies kill on a yearly basis? "The environment" about which NHK yaks endlessly about on their news casts? We are already looking at electricity shortages in both this summer and winter due to the "going green" movement. If there is so much "support" for this measure which would give arguably one of the most incompetent governments Japan has ever seen more power, then put it on a ballot and let the public vote on it. I doubt that there are many people under the age of 70 who would support for such an idiotic idea.
Pukey2
Yeah, I'd say!
gaicuckojin
Its not that an updated change is not req’d, its that i just don't trust Jgov to be competent enough to use properly.
BertieWooster
The voice of reason:
Ego Sum Lux Mundi
Yeah, sounds like a great idea, what could possibly go wrong with such a set up in a culture known for it's lack of hiearchy, decentralization and love of challenging authority.
/S
ADK99
Ridiculous. They have all the tools they need to keep people at home if they want. They have managed to pretty much close down the restaurant industry without needing a constitutional amendment - all they did was declare an emergency and introduce fines for failing to comply. What they completely failed to do was introduce fines for other companies which failed to meet working-from-home targets.
We'd be sitting pretty if Japanese companies on average had switched to, say, 70% working from home - or even 30%. The trains would be comparatively empty, people would have had far fewer close contacts through being in offices etc. This could have been accomplished through the same mechanism as was used with restaurants.
Meiyouwenti
There’s no need to amend the constitution just to add an emergency clause to it. Enacting a special legislation for emergency would serve the purpose. The government’s first priority is to stop wasting time and concentrate on scrapping Article 9, which bans armed forces, and Article 76, which bans courts martial.
FtGuy2017
Finally we are seeing the wolf in the wood, the real agenda, as seen everywhere in the world, restrict freedom and impose general surveillance, Europe being the leader in the block in that matter, no one talk about improving the medical health system which failed because of lack of creating ICU beds (when not closing them during the pandemic) or how to take in charge @ EARLY STAGE any patient.
Cricky
Right wingers just trying to find some excuse to be relevant in a world they are not relevant in. Of course by force, and fear. They don’t care.
jeancolmar
Japan has a problem with crisis management. It has noting to do with the Constitution. It is a problem with lack of LDP intelligence, pure and simple. In a crisis everything changes and you must thing in new and different ways. A totalitarian "crisis" amendment will make it worse. The people know what to do in a crisis. The stupid LDP does not. Check out the latest pandemic crisis. It was more than totalitarian enough.
Commodore Perry
Japan needs this. Without explicit directions as to what to do, the politicians cannot act.
kenshin_u
This change is necessary for Japan to be able to respond smoothly to various crisis situations. It is necessary not only for natural disasters but also to protect the people and foreign residents when they are attacked by China, for example. In the first place, the fact that the Constitution does not include an emergency clause is an anomaly in the world. Those who shout that the emergency clause is dangerous need to get rid of the emergency clause in their own countries.
Hideomi Kuze
The truth is, Japan's government can enough measures such as lock down or compensation unlike until now by applying Disaster Countermeasure Basic Act to Covid-19.
Therefore, revising Constitution is unnecessary.
Moreover, Today's article "Members of media from abroad covering Olympics to be tracked by GPS" is equal to proof that Japan can respond strictly without revising Constitution.
Japan's Suga-LDP government who want to exploit unrest among people to revising Constitution looks like even neglect measures to Covid-19 intentionally.
Whatsnext
This was always what it was about. Tyrrany always comes in the guise of safety and "patriotism." They try to sell this as if it is a Japan government for Japanese, when it's just a reversal into a neo feudalistic society.
smithinjapan
Won’t change a think until the dinosaurs in power are gone.