politics

Ruling bloc to focus on constitution reform after election win

32 Comments
By Linda Sieg

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

32 Comments
Login to comment

Wrong focus. False and inflated pride only separate Japan even further from others and reality.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Lol no surprise there. It's amazing watching history repeat itself in slow motion.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

"And then we aim to win the understanding of the people, so that we can gain a majority in a referendum," Abe said. He stopped short of claiming to have won a mandate for amending the constitution in Sunday's election.

He is going to spend literally millions upon millions of the taxpayers money to push the amendment through when it comes to the nation wide referendum that must be held for any changes to actually be put into effect.

Dont be surprised to see this happen within the next year, and unlike "other" legislation, that literally is taking years to go into effect, this one will happen in no time flat.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

And only yesterday we were being told his priorities would be N Korea and the aging population.

anyone surprised?

12 ( +14 / -2 )

Hereditary politicians are generally bad news and Abe is no exception. Rather than behaving like the 63 year-old man that he is, he's a lot more like some teenage princeling who cares more about upholding his grandfather's reputation than anything else. 

We should be very cautious about encouraging the country who originated the suicide attack as a legitimate form of war, to re-militarize. Old wounds never fully heal and most of Asia gets very nervous at the thought of a militaristic Japan

6 ( +11 / -5 )

No mention of this in his campaign, but the day after the election it comes out. This is his main agenda and has been since he took office nearly 6 years ago. He is a snake!

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Guns are out a day after the election :(

6 ( +7 / -1 )

You see? All his talk about priorities on NK and the economy, and DAY ONE it's the Constitution. How many times has he done this now that the suckers here keep falling for time after time. Let's not forget he promised the families of the abductees during the campaign he'd make progress. He promised the farmers to protect them. He promised free education for young people.

Nope... the Constitution takes priority, as I said it would.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

"Mr Abe is trying to create a legacy.

Yeah, a legacy of being the worst PM that Japan has ever had.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If NK doesn't completely denuclearize permanently, then I reluctantly support the revision of the constitution and would also support nuclear weapons deployment in Japan and second strike capability to ensure the nation's survival

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

CrazyJoeToday  08:33 am JST

We should be very cautious about encouraging the country who originated the suicide attack as a legitimate form of war, to re-militarize.

The suicide attacks were an act of complete desperation by a country facing overwhelming defeat. How does that have any bearing? Japan already IS re-militarized, amending Article 9 would simply recognize it.

Old wounds never fully heal and most of Asia gets very nervous at the thought of a militaristic Japan

China and South Korea do not represent "most of Asia". The Philippines, Malaysia Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, India all welcome Japan "normalizing" it's military. And you can include Australia as well.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

dog9065, the constitution is not made for North Korea and should not be changed by the situation in North Korea. Constitutionally speaking, war is not a option for Japan to resolve problems.

OssanAmerica, if China and South Korea do not represent "most of Asia", then who will do ? India welcome Japan "normalization" is a selfish behavior. Japan should not be used as a pawn by any nations. A normalized Japan should be an independent Japan.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Abe's focus should be the normalization the relationship with China. Japan and China have 3000 years relationship, and Abe should think it for another 3000 years. Abe will be only remembered if he will improve the relationship for generations to come. Historically, about 2000 years ago, another Abe contributed greatly to the Japan and China relationship and he is still remembered today.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

smithinjapanToday  11:07 am JST

You see? All his talk about priorities on NK and the economy, and DAY ONE it's the Constitution. How many times has he done this now that the suckers here keep falling for time after time. Let's not forget he promised the families of the abductees during the campaign he'd make progress.

He'd better hope their patience doesn't run out and they don't start calling him out as the mediocre failure he really is. He's been very lucky to get so many years of great PR out of them.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Old wounds never fully heal and most of Asia gets very nervous at the thought of a militaristic Japan

It will not end well, again, for the Japanese. Sad.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Media exit polls showed that, despite the LDP's big win, 51% of voters do not trust the prime minister

I think that says it all. But I am actually surprised to see that more Japanese favor changing the constitution than not changing it.

This was the opposisiton's election to win and they bumbled it away. Party switching, name switching, putting Koike's face on the posters but saying she won't run, and we do not knwo who will run but vote for us anyway. Monkey politics and they blew it.

Now the LDP has a blank check to change the constitution, raise our taxes and play golf with Trump

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

I don't get this constant push for a constitutional reform.

I mean, I get it, eventually they have either change or reaffirm the current constitution, so that the whole idea that "this is not a real Japanese constitution" goes away, but I don't understand why conservatives focus so much on this point.

If Japan was in great shape, and you have nothing better to do, then yes, waste your time in this, but if I remember correctly, Japan's economy is dead since more than 20 years ago, the debt is the biggest in the world, the pension system is broken, there are not enough skilled workers and these will continue decrease in the following decades, regulations and archaic laws continue to strangle entrepreneurs, the whole Civil code is a mess, the court system is also broken, specially the supreme court, and so many other problems that I think anyone understand that they have priority over the so called constitutional reform.

"Abenomics" is a disaster, and yet this guy wants to claim everything is great, because of stock market is going up, even thou the economy in general is still in the tank.

If the constitutional reform aimed to fix ANY of these things, I would be a little more inclined for it, but it just aims for the most part at dumb self indulgent wording for conservatives.

Are you really going to waste everyone's time to amend things like "There can be self-defense forces" even thou there already are, and there are not really any kind of threat to its existence if we don't amend the constitution now, or something along those lines, just to protect your nationalist ego?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

It would also be a victory for Abe, whose conservative agenda of restoring traditional values, stressing obligations to the state over individual rights and loosening constraints on the military, centres on revising the constitution.

"Obligations to the state over individual rights"... that just has my alarm bells ringing... This is the 21st century, swearing allegiance to the state is old fashioned ultra-nationalism and has no place in the modern world... it causes more problems than it solves. Abe should never have been permitted to win... how long before all schools have to wear the same uniform?

The rights of the individual are much more important than what the state wants... this really is so very wrong.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Refugees or Sufferers of Natural disaster or Nuclear disaster say:

"Immense Tax should be used to re-construction rather than election".

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@Thunderbird2 I've been banging on about this exact same thing, but get moderated, the media are not mentioning this? It's important more than article 9, which as usual in Japan are circumvent by using a loop hole anyway. Why must individuals be forced to serve the state? Simply because the geriatric politicians have an urge to control what's left of the youth.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Although his priorities are N Korea and aging Japan the focus is on constitution reform

. ....

Means more of the same: neighbors are aliens and history textbooks are right this site of the ocaen.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

i hope that this election paves the way fir the complete removal of article 9. Japan made its choice in the election.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Glad many of us voted for Abe and constitutional reform which is sorely needed in this country to normalize. Interesting to see so many foreigners (non-citizens) with no right to vote here up in arms over this. (lol.) Its like what business is it for Japanese to fret over the U.S. election if they are not citizens or have no intention to be? If you live in Japan and call this home and love this country then become a citizen and be part of the democratic process instead of harping on how Japanese citizens vote. (Many of us braved the rain and wind to cast our ballots.) This will be a great turning point for our country and from what I can gather in U.S. media a win for Abe is good for U.S. as well to have a reliable partner/friend to stymie the looming threat of China, N.Korea.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

nihonryu - ".. (Many of us braved the rain and wind to cast our ballots.) ..."

Well that's decidedly magnaminous of all you brave souls. Some people (my wife incl.) even had to go to work in it.

But the pertinent point for me post-elect is the that the narrative appears to have begun to change already. I'd swear that the heart felt biggie pre-elect was free education to be financed by the consumer tax increase. You know so 100million hearts could beat as one.

Now - while the ballot box padlocks are still warm - we get the "we'll just have to get the understanding of the people re war" spin as #1 on the charts.

Well natives of this fair country - you reap what you sow - and this time it's not rice.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

NihonRyuToday  10:11 pm JST

Glad many of us voted for Abe and constitutional reform which is sorely needed in this country to normalize.

Funny, I don't get the impression that all that many people who voted LDP are quite as gung ho about this issue as you would appear to be. I'm getting more of an "Abe's rubbish but the other options are even worse" kind of vibe.

If you live in Japan and call this home and love this country then become a citizen and be part of the democratic process instead of harping on how Japanese citizens vote.

Or don't bother to vote, as was the case with many eligible voters in this election. What do you suppose would happen to the LDP's majorities and mandate for constitutional revision though, if we all took you up on that suggestion? Maybe it's just as well we don't, eh? Or perhaps you don't think there are enough of us to make any difference and that Abe would get what he wanted regardless of whether we could vote or not, in which case what's the point of giving up our own nationalities for a right that's basically worthless?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

@Simon: why would you think the right to vote is basically worthless in Japan? It’s like those eligible in the U.S. to vote complaining about Trump being elected when they didn’t even chose to vote. Those of you foreigners so eager to complain about how the election turned out in Japan should become naturalized citizens and become an active participant of the democratic process here. Almost all citizens that immigrate to the U.S. including Japanese immigrants and call it their home become naturalized citizens and participate in the democratic process. Why should Japanese care about what some gaijins living in Japan without any love or patriotism for our country and cultural ideals to naturalize dictate our political process and more importantly overturning a constitution that was forced on us during a much different era than we live today?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Abe has wrong excuse , at wrong time, for wrong purpose, to change the constitution. If Japan indeed faces a threat of war, then what Japan should do is to promote the belief of peace. Japan has learned from the war and abandoned the idea of war. Use a war against a war only leads to a new war. Threat to use a war only provokes a response of a war. Japan doesn't need another war. I hope Abe is a PM for peace, not a PM of a war.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

NihonRyuOct. 24  11:32 pm JST

@Simon: why would you think the right to vote is basically worthless in Japan?

Where did I say that? I was actually wondering if that's what YOU think. Hence my use of these key words, "Perhaps you don't think..." and "in which case."

Maybe you knew that already, of course, and were deliberately misrepresenting my comments to make them confirm your own prejudices.

Anyway, you don't really want our views to count for anything, do you? The LDP's mandate for constitutional change really isn't that strong. Do you want to risk the possibility of us all naturalising and turning the tide against you?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

And only yesterday we were being told his priorities would be N Korea and the aging population.

The North Korean situation is legitimately out of the hands of all foreign leaders for the most part, so we will have to sit tight and wait to see. But whatever happens, at least for now it has gotten Abe out of the corner he was pushed into by his own arrogance and massive corruption scandals.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

NihonRyuOct. 24  11:32 pm JST

Those of you foreigners so eager to complain about how the election turned out in Japan should become naturalized citizens and become an active participant of the democratic process here. 

Incidentally, what democratic process? I'm not only criticising Japan because other countries have very similar problems, but in no democratic process worthy of the term should any candidate be able to win an election with less than half of the votes cast. No national election result can truly be called representative of the will of the majority while the value of each vote depends on where you live. Yet it is under such circumstances that Abe has got his mandate for revising the Constitution even though he wasn't really campaigning on that issue, something Japanese voters might bear in mind if there is ever a referendum.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Why should Japanese care about what some gaijins living in Japan without any love or patriotism for our country and cultural ideals to naturalize dictate our political process and more importantly overturning a constitution that was forced on us during a much different era than we live today?

Actually, most Japanese do not have love or patriotism for their country, and the process of naturalization has absolutely nothing to do with any of those things.

It's not about something as meaningless as patriotism, but about the rule of law.

Also, this is a free country, there is not a single "cultural ideal" or anything like that, but somehow right wingers always claim to be the "real" Japanese.

I just love to see how the right goes against the left calling them "Han-nichi", implying they are somehow "against japan" for having a different political position than yours.

So fanatics from the right, as I think you yourself are, do not even care about their fellow Japanese, if they have different political ideas.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Luis David YanezToday  12:57 pm JST

Why should Japanese care about what some gaijins living in Japan without any love or patriotism for our country and cultural ideals to naturalize dictate our political process and more importantly overturning a constitution that was forced on us during a much different era than we live today?

"Actually, most Japanese do not have love or patriotism for their country, and the process of naturalization has absolutely nothing to do with any of those things."

The idea that foreign residents could ever hope to dictate the Japanese political process without naturalising is a load of half-baked, hyperbolic nonsense anyway, with absolutely no grounding in reality. I believe that we do have the freedom to voice opinions though, and as I daresay posters like NihonRyu are more than comfortable with netto-uyoku saying whatever they like it would be somewhat hypocritical of them to object to it.

So fanatics from the right, as I think you yourself are, do not even care about their fellow Japanese, if they have different political ideas.

Such as those people challenging the election results in the courts over the urban-rural vote value disparities? Well, if they can't behave themselves it's probably because they were born with wicked foreign spirits. Or something like that.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites