http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/28/japan_constitution_war_peace_article_self_defense_force_shinzo_abe_obama/
Cry ‘Havoc’ and Let Slip the Constitution of War
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s end-run around the Japanese Constitution is shameful and unpopular. So why is Washington allowing Japan to ready its troops?
By Bruce Ackerman, Tokujin Matsudaira
September 28, 2015
The Japanese Constitution’s famous Article 9, or Peace Article, “renounce[s] war” and the “threat or use of force.” Despite this solemn commitment, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to authorize Japan’s military to engage in preemptive attacks, alongside the United States, against aggressive actions by China, the Islamic State, or other forces that might ultimately threaten Japan’s security. With President Barack Obama cheering him on, Abe is engaged in an illegal frontal assault on Japan’s constitution.
If Abe had the legislative support he needed, he could have done this legally. Indeed, the constitution provides the prime minister a straightforward way to amend the Peace Article. The Japanese Diet is composed of two branches: the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. Both must approve a proposed amendment by a two-thirds vote. If Abe were to win the support of both branches, that would have obliged him to place his proposal before the general public and persuade a simple majority to adopt it at a special referendum.
Yet Abe couldn’t even gain the parliamentary support he needed to make his case before the Japanese people. His Liberal Democratic Party might have been able to surmount the two-thirds requirement in the House of Representatives if his junior coalition partner, Komeito, had gone along. But Komeito is rooted in the Buddhist community and would have had difficulty renouncing its pacifist principles. In any event, the LDP-Komeito coalition only controlled 55 percent of the House of Councillors — and so a formal amendment was plainly beyond the prime minister’s grasp.
Upon taking office in December 2012, Abe responded to his predicament by attempting to amend the constitution to allow a simple majority in both houses to trigger a referendum. But after a six-month effort, his initiative proved to be a political non-starter. He then embarked on an end-run around the nation’s supreme law, proposing sweeping military legislation that defied traditional understandings of the Peace Article.
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Nevertheless, it is far too soon for Abe to declare victory. His ham-fisted tactics are already uniting the opposition parties to run on a common platform opposing his military ambitions in their 2016 campaign for the House of Councillors. The Japanese Supreme Court may also intervene. While the justices have been reluctant to strike down legislation in the past, they have never before confronted such a brazenly unconstitutional initiative. In an unprecedented move, Shigeru Yamaguchi, a retired chief justice, publicly condemned the government’s efforts at justification as “nonsense” — and plans have already been announced for a major litigation effort.
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