Kishida urges party debate on amending pacifist Constitution

I thought Kishida was supposed to be a dove.

What a total waste of time.

The new "constitution" should be scrapped entirely. End the US occupation and vassalization of Japan!

The militarist "dove" Kishida just got back from pretending to pray for peace in Hiroshima.

Article 9 needs to go.

Japan, like all other nations, should give herself the right to fight in wars overseas in order to assist her allies. There has never been a more dangerous time to be in Japan and the region than now - with so many aggressive, anti-democracy nations like China, Russia and North Korea.

Japan, like Germany, should normalise her Military and have the right to engage in foreign conflicts.

Present Japan's PM who repeats constitutional violation and doesn't respect even the lives of people since 2022 intends to satisfy only far-right groups.

The master who imposed the pacifist constitution now wants it gone...

"stipulating SDF" is unnecessary and unfair. because important organization is not only SDF, and any other public organizations are also not stipulated in constitution.

@happyhere

I thought Kishida was supposed to be a dove.

Kishida is anti-nuclear, not anti militarization.

Kishida opposes Japanese nuclear submarines due to his opposition of military use of nuclear power, even though Korea has started its nuclear submarine program.

https://armyrecognition.com/news/navy-news/2024/south-korea-to-build-testing-facility-for-nuclear-submarine-reactors-by-next-year

South Korea to build testing facility for nuclear submarine reactors by next year.

7 Aug, 2024 - 12:17

According to information published by Chosun Online on August 6, 2024, it has been revealed that South Korea is moving forward with plans to develop small nuclear reactors for submarines in an exclusive report.

when you wannabe adult but you are not adult yet.

if want change constitution and be militarized country as ROK for example do one important thing:

send US boys ladies and others back home and stop funding their lavish life from our taxes

once this is done than talk seriously as adult and leader of real independent country.

until than all of this is just drama for masses and pure wasting of time.

no science behind.

The time for talk is over. Time for Japan to get nukes.

"Article 9 needs to go.

Japan, like all other nations, should give herself the right to fight in wars overseas in order to assist her allies. There has never been a more dangerous time to be in Japan and the region than now - with so many aggressive, anti-democracy nations like China, Russia and North Korea.

Japan, like Germany, should normalise her Military and have the right to engage in foreign conflicts."@Fighto

Spot on, it's the duty of the government to defend and feed it's people.

End the US occupation and vassalization of Japan!

In what was is the current Japanese/US relationship an occupation or “vassalization”?

Way*

if want change constitution and be militarized country as ROK for example do one important thing:

send US boys ladies and others back home and stop funding their lavish life from our taxes

Why?

Japanese LDP regime rapidly balloon weapon budget and they more treat SDF specially despite malfunction of even civilian control such as concealing illegal acts of SDF members from defense minister.

Present Japan's shameless PM and ruling party prioritize to worsen Constitution in the shade of Olympics that major media distract public eyes from political issues than defending citizen from crisis of health and the lives such as poverty, repeating infection-disease wave, natural disaster or disaster-related death.

It seems Kishida already gave up trying to recover any popularity and decided it is time to burn whatever is left with deeply unpopular moves, in a way a political sacrifice so the next prime minister can deal with whatever results while denying having anything to do with it.

I think it unlikely that it can get 2/3s of the vote in both House of the Diet, but if it somehow does the people then vote on it. If it reaches this point it would not surprise me if the US/LDP does a false flag operation or two.

Article 96. Amendments to this Constitution shall be initiated by the Diet, through a concurring vote of two-thirds or more of all the members of each House and shall thereupon be submitted to the people for ratification, which shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast thereon, at a special referendum or at such election as the Diet shall specify.

Once again, JT commenters are spreading the disinformation that the US imposed Article 9 on Japan.

It was proposed by Prime Minister Shidehara: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09555803.2021.1958902

Think about it: why would the Allies deny Japan a military, while allowing Germany to have one after having plowed through Europe in two World Wars, at the cost of tens of millions of lives? Especially given the escalating situation in East Asia, with China, North Korea, and Vietnam falling to the Communists, and the Soviets even taking Japanese territory?

Kishida needs be very careful here.

Japan has not been attacked by any other country nor had any military conflicts on its soil.

No major terrorist attacks from the Middle East that I know of. No 911 types. Now were talking about on Japanese soil. Whose to say if a World War breaks out how Japan would fair in such a conflict. And you better believe were closer now to such an event happening that we have ever been from weak US leadership from Obama, Biden era. I

And to clear. Japan can defend itself and easily go from a defensive posture to something else. Japan can deploy forces if she wanted. So, an update is more formality at this point. Should Japan posses nuclear capabilities? I would love if Japan never put Nukes on its soil. An Ohio SSBNs and SSGNs off the coast of Japan can end any threat in minutes in the APAC These submarines are so deadly. One of the most deadliest weapons of mass destruction in the world. i Ohio SSBNs carry 20 Trident SLBMs (limited from 24 due to START treaty) with 3–6 nuclear warheads each, while the SSGNs can carry up to 154 tomahawk cruise missiles each.

And best believe these subs are in Japanese waters. So pointless for Japan to have the nukes.

This is not about defending Japan. 

The US government wants to use Japanese forces in US wars under US command. This is why Kishida is flying around to the US, Europe, and South Asia. US conventional military forces alone are insufficient for the ambitions of the US government.

"Kishida urges" itself has already violated compliance obligation of the constitution.

Why was this "pacifist" constitution proposed by the US occupation in 1947?

Understand that after the war the Japanese militarists were completely discredited. The Socialist and Communist partisans were surging in popularity. The US occupation was in competition with them for the support of the Japanese people. That is why the occupation authorities adopted an image of pacifism and democracy. But at the same time behind the scenes the US occupation was rehabilitating the militarists to bring them to power again under the wing of the US. The pacifist constitution however remained and increasingly became a problem that the militarists and the US want to fix.

That should be:

"The Socialist and Communist parties were surging in popularity."

Also remember that the Japanese defeat came as a big shock to most people. The Japanese news media had been lying about everything. And so that shock also increased the anger towards the militarists after the war. Also the occupation released many political prisoners who had opposed the war.

That would mean more money siphoning into defence and military.

Ttanslation: more taxes and taxes increase for the general population, the one thst is getting the hard supporting all those endevours.

BellflowerToday 04:08 pm JST

Why was this "pacifist" constitution proposed by the US occupation in 1947?

It wasn't. It was proposed by Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara.

EastmannToday 10:10 am JST

if want change constitution and be militarized country as ROK for example do one important thing:

send US boys ladies and others back home

This and get nukes and watch the apologists heads spin.

Before corrupted LDP leader election next month, present leader Kishida and other candidates seem to privatize the constitution to increase votes from far-right supporters.

It was imposed on Japan by MacArthur. The USA State Dept. and military planned to use Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China as the "bulwark of democracy" in East Asia. How did that work out?

Americans didn't understand Asia then nor is that understanding any better today.

Why was this "pacifist" constitution proposed by the US occupation in 1947?

The 1947 Constitution, created in response to Japan's wartime military aggression, renounces war and bans the possession of military forces and other "war potential" in Article 9.

This has effectively been ignored as the JSDF is a military force with some of the most advanced military equipment in the world at its disposal.

if want change constitution and be militarized country as ROK for example do one important thing: send US boys ladies and others back home and stop funding their lavish life from our taxes

ROK maintains US forces on a permanent basis as Japan does, and it helps pay to have them there as Japan does.

Think about it: why would the Allies deny Japan a military, while allowing Germany to have one after having plowed through Europe in two World Wars, at the cost of tens of millions of lives?

Pearl harbor for one thing, and Germany was split with USSR already identified as an adversary that needed to be offset. While at the time China was still ROC and allied, with US having bases in Taiwan. It was at the time necessary, but now it hinders responding to CCP aggression.

EastmannAug. 8  10:10 am JST

lavish life from our taxes

Doesn't even cover the upkeep.

deanzaZZRToday  12:13 am JST

Americans didn't understand Asia then nor is that understanding any better today.

Doesn't really matter as long as China remains in its cage. We'll see how well the US understands Asia when push comes to shove. Nobody will side with China except its puppets.

If Kishida is serious, there are certainly a few other amendments to be made. He might as well do them all at once.

Do away with the pacifist clause and Japan will sooner or later find itself at war.

The post-war Japanese constitution, notably its war-renouncing Article 9, can be an epoch-making world cultural heritage that every nation should value, esteem and emulate.

So, it's quite inconceivable why Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is so eager to do away with it, making Japan return to erstwhile trail of militarism and jingoism.

Is the U.S. behind the scenes, urging Japan to revise the constitution?

Pearl harbor for one thing

Holy Cow, man. We just established that it was the Japanese PM who introduced Article 9, and here you are trying to justify why the Americans did it?

Just Wow, man.

Japan can deploy forces if she wanted.

No. The JSDF has no ability to deploy abroad if it wanted to. It was a deliberate choice on the part of multiple prior Japanese governments to limit the ability of the JSDF to deploy from their home bases. The ability to deploy independently of US forces was proscribed by Japan's neighbors who wanted Japan to have no ability to repeat the horrors of WWII. Japan's Asian neighbors pressured Japan and the US both to limit Japanese forces to operate only around Japan.

Japan has no amphibious sealift. The JMSDF can move at most 900 troops on three ships. That is the sum total of Japanese sealift. Japan has no air assault capability. The JMSDF has very limited logistics support for long range deployments. They don't have the kinds of long range logistics support force one finds in the US, British, French or Chinese navies though the JMSDF appears to be trying to rectify this.

The JASDF doesn't have the sort of portable support equipment you find with the USAF, US Navy and Marine Corps air wings, all of whom can pack their equipment up on airplanes or ships and deploy abroad. All of the JASDF ground support equipment is built into hard stands and hangers on their home bases. It can't be moved. That too was deliberate, to tie the JASDF to Japan so it can't deploy unless the US wanted to provide the airlift and support equipment to permit them to do so.

Japan's military capabilites are more limited than you know.

Think about it: why would the Allies deny Japan a military, while allowing Germany to have one

Regional sensibilities. In Europe the Russian Bear was breathing hot breath down western Europe's throat. Germany was a front line state. If the Soviets rolled into western Europe it would have been through the Fulda Gap. Germany had to have a strong Army and Air Force to deter a Soviet invasion. The rest of Europe bit their tongues and let Germany re-arm out of practical self interest. All of western Europe was under the gun.

In the Pacific, all of Japan's neighbors hated and feared Japan. Even as late as my own naval service in the 1980s you heard that sentiment. Asians slept better at night knowing Japan didn't have the ability any more to invade them. As long as the US guaranteed Japan's security there was no perceived need for Japan to rearm fully. When you get into the late 1980s and early 1990s there was this hysteria that Japan was going to surpass the US as the number one economic superpower and this would lead to another war with Japan. You can believe that or not but I have books on my bookcase behind me predicting exactly that. Asian nations figured that as long as the US had forces in Japan the Japanese wouldn't invade them again.

That situation only began to change with the ascension to power of Xi Jinping and his assertive and belligerent foreign policies. Now nations see Japan as being as threatened as they are by China and look to Japan for security.