Constitution Memorial Day

Today is Constitution Memorial Day in Japan. Constitution of Japan was enforced on May 3, 1947. By the way it was on Nov. 3, 1946 that Constitution of Japan was promulgated. Nov. 3 is also a national holiday as Culture Day.

In every year, there is a lot of discussion about the Constitution on spring in Japan. Some parties present their policy about the Constitution.

In Japan, ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is willing to revise the Constitution, even if the LDP is relatively conservative. Opinion of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is vague. Some of representative politicians belong to DPJ claim the necessity of revision of the constitution. However, DPJ seems to hesitate to claim strongly for the revision of the Constitution, not to harmonize to LDP. Japan Restoration Party agrees the revision.
Traditionally, Social Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party were clearly opposed to the revision of the Constitution. But members of them are decreasing nowadays. Moreover, the LDP is quite dominant in the diet because of the number of seats and approval rating now. So it is possible that revision of the Constitution is realized.

Japan has never revised the Constitution yet after the promulgation. It is very rare in the international point of view. It is said that one of the reasons is that it is too difficult to revise the Constitution. To revise the Constitution, more than two-third of the members in both upper house and lower house must agree with it. Moreover, national voting is essential. Some say it is an intrigue of GHQ not to change the antiwar policy of Japan.

However, the necessary condition of the revision of the constitution is not so severe in Japan, compared to other countries. In Germany, more than two-third of the members in both Federal Diet and Federal Council must agree the revision. Nonetheless, the constitution was revised over 50 times after WW II in Germany.

Actually, Japan has not revised the constitution itself, but the Japan government changed the interpretation of the constitution repeatedly. For example, Japan established National Police Reverse (past form of the Self Defense Force) in 1950. Obviously, article 9 in the Constitution of Japan prohibits organizing any army. However, National Police Reverse was deemed to be an exclusively self-defensive organization, not an army. Recently, Self Defense Force participated in the Iraq War. This kind of activity is also not against article 9, according to the Government.

Some media report public opinion about the revision of the Constitution. In the questionnaire performed by NHK, 42% of respondents think the revision is necessary, 16% think not necessary. According to Nikkei Shinbun, 56% of respondents claim the necessity of the revision of the Constitution, 28% claim keeping. On the other hand, Asahi Shinbun emphasizes the conservativeness in citizens against the revision. According to its questionnaire, 54% of the respondents are opposed relaxing the condition of the revision of the Constitution.
To be honest, I hardly trust the result of the questionnaire. Questionnaire surveys may be inductive in many cases. The Nikkei is relatively close to LDP. Asahi is against the LDP. To perform a questionnaire survey neutrally is very difficult technically, from my experience.

My opinion is that we should revise the Constitution for our own responsibility. However I do not think that the revision will change Japan so dramatically. In the modern world, revision of laws has no power to change the world, especially in Japan.