村野瀬玲奈の秘書課広報室

"We oppose the total revision of the Japanese constitution in progress by the current Japanese government."

The Japanese government and the parties in power are revising the Japanese constitution, under the slogan: "release Japan from its political regime of the post-war period". In fact, their intention is to remove the constitutional constraints imposed upon the political and administrative power of the State. Indeed, their plan of this "regime change" is hidden in the draft of the "new constitution" published by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on October 28, 2005.

The reasons why we are against the regime change are as follows:

First, it reserves the fundamental human rights and civil freedom on the pretext of the priority to "the public interest", a reduction or a substantial suspension of the pacifist principle and a relaxing or a substantial abrogation of the principle of the separation of the religion and the politics. This means an anti-democratic change of the fundamental lines of the Japanese constitution which has its three principles: "popular sovereignty", "pacifism" and "the respect of the fundamental human rights".

Second, article 96 of the current Japanese constitution stipulates the reform of the current constitution which is rigid will be modified too, so that the government can revise the constitution by own initiative and a parliamentary vote, without any procedure of validation by the Japanese people, in a right and equitable way. With such a change of this article, the Japanese constitution will lose its rigid character substantially and the government will have the power to change this constitution, even its fundamental lines, any time and in any way, to suit the government's own convenience, regardless of the intentions of the the Japanese people.

These two points make us believe that this constitutional revision under the slogan: "release Japan from its political regime of the post-war period", will not be limited only to a partial modification of some articles but that it will be also a full-scale revision of all the constitution. In other words, we think that this constitutional revision is an announcement of an antidemocratic change in Japan. If such a constitutional revision as the government and the parties currently in power imagine they carriy this out, The constitution of Japan will be something completely different, with its democratic principles and its constitutional characteristic weakened.

Indeed, from a democratic point of view, the political behavior of the LDP which constitutes a majority in Parliament and government, currently shows many dangerous concrete signs. In particular, since the 1990's, the LDP is gradually following nationalist policies, which consist in giving priority to military affairs, while mobilizing the power of the State more easily and restricting fundamental human rights. The executives of the government and the parties currently in power, in particular the LDP, hoist their slogan: "release Japan from its political regime of the post-war period", while neglecting the fundamental law which is the current constitution of Japan, following the draft of October 28th, 2005, of its "new constitution" and acting as if there were not their obligation for the regent, the ministers of State, the members of the Diet, the judges and all the other civil servants to respect and defend the current constitution, which is stipulated in the article 99. These deputies of the LDP reproach the current constitution, in an abstract and unilateral way, pretending that it does not correspond to the times. They claim unceasingly and obstinately, that human rights support selfishness and give bad influences to public order and moral standards. They interpret the constitution forcibly in their favor. Moreover, many policies which are already applied or which are prepared or planned transgress the principles of the constitution, to the extent that we dare to consider them anti-constitutional. We observe all that, day after day and we have sufficiently realistic doubts.

From these facts, we can conclude that the Japanese government and the parties currently in power aim at a full-scale constitutional revision, in order to allow them to deny its constitutional character which should consist in giving orders to the State on behalf of the Japanese people and on the other hand, in order to allow them to give orders unilaterally to the people on behalf of the State.

Obviously, only one constitutional revision will not complete a "regime change" sacrificing democracy and constitutionalism. In the same way, the Japanese who aspire for peace and freedom, and Japanese society that they constitute will perhaps not change immediately their behavior and direction towards dangerous totalitarianism. However, with the intentions of this total constitutional revision by the LDP, it will be inevitable that the framework of the legal system to prevent Japan from moving towards the antidemocratic and anti-constitutional direction would not be valid anymore. Moreover, it is undeniable that such a regime change will shift the conscience and the political behavior of the population to an antidemocratic direction in the medium and long term, Japan has experienced totalitarianism and militarism during the Second World War. In the current situation, an undeniable part of Japanese journalism supports this attempt of the LDP to revise the constitution, consciously serving the directing and arbitrary statements of the government. And as mentioned before, we cannot qualify this attempt as democratic nor constitutional. If such a regime change is accomplished in this situation, it will be a deeply serious error for Japan and the international community in the future. We can easily imagine it, if we have a look on the irresponsible attitude of the Japanese political parties in power and on their lack of a humanitarian point of view about the sexual slaves of the Japanese imperial army during the Second World War which created a worldwide sensation recently.

Another more important and worrying thing is the current relations between the USA and Japan. Actually, since the cold war between the east and the west which lasted one half-century, and now that the wave of globalization reigns in the whole world, many agreements were established by the requests from the United States, in order to support and supplement the military strategy of the United States. There are, for example, the conclusion of the "Treaty of mutual cooperation and security between Japan and the United States of America" (1960), "the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Co-operation" (1997), the Armitage report (the official name: "INSS Special Report", 2000), "The U.S.-Japan Regulatory Reform and Competition Policy Initiative", an enormous expenditure paid by Japan for restructuring of the American military forces remaining in Japan, and the attempts of modification of the interpretation of the Japanese constitution by the Japanese government to widen the extent of the right of collective self-defense, and so on. As time passed, all these agreements substantially destroyed the respect for the articles of the Japanese constitution which should be superior law to these rules. Moreover, the sovereignty which should belong to the people is also transmitted gradually to the State. Indeed, the current full-scale revision of the constitution by the Japanese government is about to finalize its ultimate objective in an unconcealed way.

Thus, the Japanese people now are faced with a danger to submit to the interest of the government and that of the current parties in power which form an integral unity in the ally, the United States, politically and diplomatically. That means at the same time that Japan will lose its own sovereignty and that it will become a substantial possession of the United States in their military strategy. Thus, the current Japanese Self-Defence Forces will be obligatorily brought unilaterally to follow the military strategy of the United States, like a dependent troop.

It is regrettable that this full-scale constitutional revision or "this establishment of a new constitution" is in progress, whereas a majority of the Japanese people do not understand its purposes well. The reason for that is that the majority of the Japanese people would be opposed to this constitutional revision if they really understood the intention of the Japanese government and that of the parties currently in power. Indeed, we do not want a Japanese military force to be deployed abroad to serve the United States' military strategy acting always in an unilateralist way. We do not want Japanese people's blood and that of the people of the world to run in wars, either.

Let us take a look at the history of Japan. The purpose of the LDP, that has his root in dominating political groups in power before and during the Second World War and that was almost all the time in power also after this war, is to establish its "new voluntary constitution" denying the current democratic constitution which was written just after the defeat of Japan in the Second World War. And now, Shinzo Abe, grandson of Nobusuke Kishi who was one of the political personalities with the highest responsibility for the Japanese colonialist invasion into the other Asian countries under the pretext of creation of a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" and for the policies applied during the occupation of Japan by the United States after the war, is about to execute the idea of his grandfather, carrying out his dangerous intrigues. Shinzo Abe, just after his installation as the Prime Minister in September 2006, announced his slogan: "release Japan from its political regime of the post-war period", which was not explicitly shown as an electoral promise of the LDP on the preceding legislative elections of the House of Representatives in August 2005. On that occasion, Abe announced clearly that he would quickly carry out his idea concretely with constitutional reform. And the LDP, to which he belongs and which has an absolute majority of the seats, strongly push this action. We are sure to say that it is a violent negation of the fundamental values of our country in a democracy, which normally should have its principle of popular sovereignty and its constitutional principle.

Now, Japan is one of the biggest economic powers of the world and it has an important influence on the international community. Thus, if Japan reduces or denies its own democracy explicitly and intentionally, it will be a great threat for the peace of the world. We must not let a fascistic tyranny which had led the world to a tragedy in 1930's reproduce in Japan in the 21st century. This is our will, because we reflect deeply on the dreadful damage caused by the erroneous war in the past, because we are doubtful of the nationalist policies put into force by the current Japanese government and of their non-democratic characters and because we fear that Japan represents a threat and a nationalist despotism in the future. Once again, this is our will from each one of us, because we believe in the true democracy.

"We oppose the "bill on the procedures of constitutional reform (the law on the referendum)" that the Japanese government and the parties currently in power aim at adopting, for the following reasons: "

From the very beginning, the purpose of the constitution should be to guarantee the right to control. The power of the State to the people. Precisely, the procedures of constitutional reform should be right, equitable, clear, transparent, conform to the fundamental principles of the democracy which are popular with the people, and respect for the fundamental human rights. Firstly, for this objective, it is necessary for the referendum in the procedures of constitutional reform, reflect public opinion as exactly as possible. Secondly, it is necessary for the people to have a free access to as varied political opinions as possible, for an apt decision on behalf of the people. Thirdly, it is necessary for free and equitable popular movements for the referendum to be assured, so that wide and thorough popular discussions might be possible. From this point of view, the bill currently proposed by the government and the parties currently in power does not seem to satisfy the conditions of a right, equitable, clear and transparent referendum, mentioned previously. The reasons are as follows:

1. The bill on the referendum (bill on the procedures of constitutional reform) does not stipulate the minimum rate of participation so that the referendum is valid. For example, only voices of 20% of the voters will be able to approve a reform of articles. (Thus, the constitutional and democratic principles of the constitution could be easily modified.)

2. In this bill on the referendum, limitations with some sanctions might be an obstacle to the freedom of opinion and sanctions are likely to be applied arbitrarily by the government. (These sanctions and these limitations could be disadvantageous only to people defending the constitution in force.)

3. Equity for the people to make a deliberate judgment on proposed projects of constitutional reforms is not assured in terms of public relations. (As the number of participants in the council for public relations for the referendum and publicities paid by the public money will be allotted almost purely proportionally to the number of the seats at the Parliament, the political parties which have more seats will have unilaterally disproportionate advantages. Moreover, unbounded paying publicities will favor unilaterally fortunate parties.)

4. The period from the proposal of the project of constitutional reform at the Parliament until the referendum is too short. (It is not sure that the people can make an informed judgment.)

5. The mode of the poll on the referendum is ambiguous. (An arbitrary leading by grouping of articles on the vote should be avoided and each voter should make judgments article by article. But these points are not clearly defined in the bill suggested by the government and the parties currently in power.)


"We oppose any antidemocratic regime change by the current Japanese government and we ask for a development and a concretization of the democratic principles of the Japanese constitution in force."

We oppose any regime change which the current Japanese government is aiming at and which will permit Japan to make war without reserve by the intention of the political parties in power and that of the leaders of the government.

We want to prevent Japan by all means from transforming itself back into an antidemocratic or anti-constitutional country.

We aspire to the development of democratic principles, which are popular with the Japanese people. Pacifism and respect for fundamental human rights, the concretization of values of the present Japanese constitution.

We want to share the fruits of peace and democracy in Japan, with all peoples of the world.

We believe that this is also the will of the peoples of the world who aspires to freedom and peace, wishing to defend and develop democracy.

The LDP currently in power announced their will of a "regime change" and now that they are about to start constitutional reform (the law on the referendum), there is not much time left to resist it.

We address this message to the whole world, hoping that our will holds well in the face of the judgment of history. We also hope that our actions will open a way which will bring all the international community to the next stage towards peace. We sincerely ask all the people of the world of good will to unite in front of our project, in their respective countries, their respective communities and their respective places of everyday life, to win peace and democracy for our country and of course, those of the world together.

May 3rd, 2007


（以上、ネイティブチェック入りの英訳でした。）
-------------------------------------------------------------
（以下はネイティブチェック前の村野瀬訳。恥ずかしながら参考までに。）
May 3rd, 2007

"We oppose any antidemocratic change of the political regime of Japan"


"We oppose the total revision of the Japanese constitution in progress by the current Japanese government."

At present, the Japanese government and the parties in power aim at revising the Japanese constitution, under the slogan: "release of Japan from its political regime of the post-war period". In fact, their most important goal is to remove the constitutional constraints imposed upon the political and administrative power of the State. Indeed, the intention of this "regime change" is written discreetly in the draft of the "new constitution" published on October 28, 2005 by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) which is in power.

Firstly, are written in this draft a reserve of the fundamental human rights and civil freedom on the pretext of the priority to "the public interest", a reduction or a substantial suspension of the pacifist principle and a relaxing or a substantial abrogation of the principle of the separation of the religion and the politics. This means an antidemocratic change of the fundamental lines of the Japanese constitution which has its three principles: "popular sovereignty", "pacifism" and "the respect of the fundamental human rights".

Secondly, in this draft, the article 96 of the current Japanese constitution stipulating the reform of the current constitution which is a rigid one is modified too, so that the government can revise the constitution only by its initiative and a parliamentary vote, without any procedure to validate the intentions of the sovereign who is the Japanese people in a right and equitable way. With such a change of this article, the Japanese constitution will lose its rigid character substantially and the government will have the power to change this constitution, even its fundamental lines, any time and in any way, to suit the government's own convenience, regardless of the intentions of the sovereign who is the Japanese people.

These two points make us believe that this constitutional revision under the slogan: "release of Japan from its political regime of the post-war period", will not be limited only to a partial modification of some articles but that it will be also a full-scale revision of all the constitution. In other words, we think that this constitutional revision is an announcement of an antidemocratic change of the political regime of Japan. If such a constitutional revision as the government and the parties currently in power imagine it is carried out this time, the constitution of Japan will be something completely different, with its democratic principle and its constitutional characteristic weakened.

Indeed, from the democratic point of view, the political behavior of the LDP which constitutes a majority of the Parliament and government currently shows many dangerous concrete signs. In particular, since the 1990's, the LDP is gradually following nationalist policies, which consist in giving priority to the military affairs, while mobilizing the power of the State more easily and restricting fundamental human rights. The executives of the government and the parties currently in power, in particular the direction of the LDP, hoist their slogan: "release of Japan from its political regime of the post-war period", while neglecting the fundamental law which is the current constitution of Japan, following the draft of October 28th, 2005, of its "new constitution" and acting as if there were not their obligation for the regent, the ministers of State, the members of the Diet, the judges and all the other civil servants to respect and defend the current constitution, which is stipulated in the article 99. These deputies of the LDP reproach the current constitution, in an abstract and unilateral way, pretending that it does not correspond to the times. They claim unceasingly and obstinately that the human rights support selfishness and give bad influences to the public order and the moral standard. They interpret the constitution forcibly in their favor. Moreover, many policies which are already applied or which are prepared or planned transgress the principles of the constitution, to the extent that we dare to consider them anticonstitutional. We observe all that day after day and we have sufficiently realistic doubts.

From these facts, we can conclude that the Japanese government and the parties currently in power aim at a full-scale constitutional revision, in order to allow them to deny its constitutional character which should consist in giving orders to the State on behalf of the sovereign who is the Japanese people and on the other hand, in order to allow them to give orders unilaterally to the people on behalf of the State.

Obviously, only one constitutional revision will not complete a "regime change" sacrificing the democracy and the constitutionalism. In the same way, the Japanese who aspire peace and freedom, and the Japanese society that they constitute will perhaps not change immediately their behavior and direction towards dangerous totalitarianism. However, with the intentions of this total constitutional revision by the LDP, it will be inevitable that the framework of the legal system to prevent Japan to go towards the antidemocratic and anti-constitutional direction would not be valid anymore. Moreover, it is undeniable that such a regime change will shift the conscience and the political behavior of the population towards an antidemocratic direction in the medium and long term, as Japan has experienced it in totalitarianism and militarism during the Second World War. In the current situation, an undeniable part of Japanese journalism supports this attempt of the LDP to revise the constitution, consciously or serving the directing and arbitrary statement of the government. And as mentioned before, we cannot qualify this attempt as democratic nor constitutional. If such a regime change is accomplished in this situation, it will be a deeply serious error for Japan and the international community in the future. And we can easily imagine it, if we have a look on the irresponsible attitude of the Japanese political party in power and on their lack of humanitarian point of view about the sexual slaves of the Japanese imperial army during the Second World War which created a worldwide sensation recently.

Another more important and worrying thing is the current relation between the USA and Japan. Actually, since the cold war between the east and the west which lasted one half-century, and now that the wave of globalization reigns in the whole world, many agreements were established by the requests from the United States, in order to support and supplement the military strategy of the United States on each occasion. There are, for example, the conclusion of the "Treaty of mutual cooperation and security between Japan and the United States of America" (1960), "the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Co-operation" (1997), the Armitage report (the official name: "INSS Special Report", 2000), "The U.S.-Japan Regulatory Reform and Competition Policy Initiative", an enormous expenditure paid by Japan for restructuring of the American military forces remaining in Japan, and the attempts of modification of the interpretation of the Japanese constitution by the Japanese government to widen the extent of the right of collective self-defense, and so on. As time passed, all these agreements substantially destroyed the respect for the articles of the Japanese constitution which should be a superior law to these rules. Moreover, the sovereignty which should belong to the people is also transmitted gradually to the State. Indeed, the current full-scale revision of the constitution by the Japanese government is about to finalize its ultimate objective in an unconcealed way.

Thus, the Japanese people now are faced with a danger to submit to the interest of the government and that of the current parties in power which form an integral unity in the ally, the United States, politically and diplomatically. That means at the same time that Japan will lose its own sovereignty and that it will become a substantial possession of the United States in their military strategy. Thus, the current Japanese Self-Defence Forces will be obligatorily brought unilaterally to follow the military strategy of the United States, like a dependent troop.

It is regrettable that this full-scale constitutional revision or "this establishment of a new constitution" is in progress, whereas a majority of the Japanese people does not understand its purposes well. The reason for that is that the majority of the Japanese people would be opposed to this constitutional revision if they really understood the intention of the Japanese government and that of the parties currently in power. Indeed, we do not want the Japanese military force to be deployed abroad to serve the United States' military strategy acting always in an unilateralist way. We do not want the Japanese people's blood and that of the people of the world to run in wars, either.

Let us take a look at the history of Japan. The purpose of the LDP, that has his root in dominating political groups in power before and during the Second World War and that was almost all the time in power also after this war, is to establish its "new voluntary constitution" denying the current democratic constitution which was written just after the defeat of Japan in the Second World War. And now, Shinzo Abe, grandson of Nobusuke Kishi who was one of the political personalities with the highest responsibility for the Japanese colonialist invasion into the other Asian countries under the pretext of creation of a "prosperous territory of the Large Eastern Asia" and for the policies applied during the occupation of Japan by the United States after the war, is about to execute the idea of his grandfather, carrying out his dangerous intrigues. Shinzo Abe, just after his installation as the Prime Minister in September 2006, announced his slogan: "release of Japan from its political regime of the post-war period", which was not explicitly shown as an electoral promise of the LDP on the preceding legislative elections of the House of Representatives in August 2005. On that occasion, Abe announced clearly that he would quickly carry out his idea concretely with a constitutional reform. And the LDP, to which he belongs and which has an absolute majority of the seats, strongly push this action. We are sure to say that it is a violent negation of the fundamental values of our country in a democracy which normally should have its principle of popular sovereignty and its constitutional principle.

Now, Japan is one of the biggest economic powers of the world and it has an important influence on the international community. Thus, if Japan reduces or denies its own democracy explicitly and intentionally, it will be a great threat for the peace of the world. We must not let a fascistic tyranny which had led the world to a tragedy in 1930's reproduce in Japan in the 21st century. This is our will, because we reflect deeply on the dreadful damage caused by the erroneous war in the past, because we are doubtful of the nationalist policies put into force by the current Japanese government and of their non-democratic characters and because we fear that Japan represents a threat and a nationalist despotism in the future. Once again, this is our will from each one of us, because we believe in the true democracy.


"We oppose the "bill on the procedures of constitutional reform (the law on the referendum)" that the Japanese government and the parties currently in power aim at adopting, for the following reasons: "

From the very beginning, the purpose of the constitution should be to guarantee the right to control the power of the State to the sovereign people. Precisely, the procedures of constitutional reform should be right, equitable, clear, transparent, conform to the fundamental principles of the democracy which are popular sovereignty and the respect of the fundamental human rights. Firstly, for this objective, it is necessary for the referendum in the procedures of constitutional reform to reflect the public opinion as exactly as possible. Secondly, it is necessary for the people to have a free access to as varied political opinions as possible, for an apt decision on behalf of the people. Thirdly, it is necessary for free and equitable popular movements for the referendum to be assured, so that wide and thorough popular discussions might be possible. From this point of view, the bill currently proposed by the government and the parties currently in power does not seem to satisfy the conditions of a right, equitable, clear and transparent referendum, mentioned previously. The reasons are as follows:

1. The bill on the referendum (bill on the procedures of constitutional reform) does not stipulate the minimum rate of participation so that the referendum is valid. For example, only voices of 20% of the voters will be able to approve a reform of articles. (Thus, the constitutional and democratic principles of the constitution are very easily likely to be modified.)

2. In this bill on the referendum, limitations with some sanctions might be an obstacle to the freedom of opinion and sanctions are likely to be applied arbitrarily by the government. (These sanctions and these limitations could be disadvantageous only to people defending the constitution in force.)

3. Equity for the people to make a deliberate judgment on proposed projects of constitutional reforms is not assured in terms of public relations. (As the number of participants in the council for public relations for the referendum and publicities paid by the public money will be allotted almost purely proportionally to the number of the seats at the Parliament, the political parties which have more seats will have unilaterally disproportionate advantages. Moreover, unbounded paying publicities will favor unilaterally fortunate parties.)

4. The period from the proposal of the project of constitutional reform at the Parliament until the referendum is too short. (It is not sure that the people can make their deliberate judgment.)

5. The mode of the poll on the referendum is ambiguous. (An arbitrary leading by grouping of articles on the vote should be avoided and each voter should make judgments article by article. But these points are not clearly defined in the bill suggested by the government and the parties currently in power.)


"We oppose any antidemocratic regime change by the current Japanese government and we ask for a development and a concretization of the democratic principles of the Japanese constitution in force."

We oppose any regime change which the current Japanese government is aiming at and which will permit Japan to make war without reserve by the intention of the political parties in power and that of the leaders of the government.

We want to prevent Japan by all means from transforming itself into an antidemocratic or anti-constitutional country.

We aspire to a development of the democratic principles which are popular sovereignty, the pacifism and the respect for the fundamental human rights, by a concretization of the values of the Japanese constitution in force.

We want to share fruits of peace and democracy of Japan with all peoples of the whole world.

We believe that this is also the will of all the peoples of the world who aspires to freedom and peace, wishing to defend and develop the democracy.

Now that the LDP currently in power which takes part in the government announced their will of a "regime change" and now that they are about to start their procedures of constitutional reform (the law on the referendum), there is not much time left to resist it.

We address this message to the whole world, hoping that our will holds well in the face of the judgment of the history. We also hope that our action will open a way which will bring all the international community to the next stage towards peace. We sincerely ask all the people of the whole world of good will to unite in front of our project, in their respective countries, their respective communities and their respective places of everyday life, to win peace and democracy of our country and of course, those of the whole world together.

May 3rd, 2007

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