Strengthening Japan's military
Tokyo (AsiaNews) Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held a special convention on November 22 to mark the 50th anniversary of its founding. Born in 1955 from the union of existing conservative parties, the LDP has governed the country ever since, except for a few months.
In their speeches Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who chaired the party's Constitution Drafting Committee, celebrated less the party's past than laid out its programmes for the future.
The Prime Minister, who is also party president, presented his plans for the future of the country promising reforms that would enable it to face the challenges of a rapidly-changing world.
"In Japan's modern political history, two big reforms can be called 'miracles'. One was the Meiji Restoration of 1867-68, and the other is the reform that came 60 years ago after the defeat in World War II," Koizumi said.
"In the 50th anniversary of its founding, our party has gained popular support. Realising the gains made in these years, people have expressed their support for reforms," he said.
The message is clear. Koizumi talks about the past with the future in mind. The third wave of reforms is underway and he started it. For modesty's sake, he did not call it a "miracle" but he did refer to the LDP's overwhelming victory in the September 11 as a miracle.
Koizumi noted that the first two 'miracles' were achieved after many people were killed. But the third one will be achieved peacefully.
In a speech that complimented that of his successor, Yoshiro Mori somehow clouded all the talk about peace. In it he laid out the LDP's draft proposal for constitutional reform.
He said that "now the time has come for us to compile our own constitution." US occupation forces "compiled the current Japanese constitution within nine days. It has taken the LDP 50 years to prepare the new draft".
However, these 50 years have been spent more trying to chip away at the spirit, if not the letter of the law, namely Article 9, than at studying constitutional changes.
For pacifists, Article 9 remains the cornerstone of the constitution. It reads: ". . . the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. . . . In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."
The draft proposal says instead that "to ensure peace and the independence of the nation, Japan shall maintain self-defence forces under the supreme command of the Prime Minister". This amounts to saying the opposite.
Analysts however agree that the new text would substantially change nothing. It would only remove terminological ambiguities calling things by their name.
In fact, the Japan Self-Defence Forces (JSDF) are a conventional military force in everything but name, numbering some 240,000 specialised troops equipped with the latest weaponry at an annual cost of US$ 44 billion.
Although the JSDF were restricted to Japanese territory until a few years ago, they currently have some 600 soldiers deployed to Iraq.
Under the terms of the existing constitution they can shoot only in self-defence and in Iraq they are used only in reconstruction work. However, who can say whether Japan's military escalation will stop there.
In order to be adopted, the proposed constitutional change requires a two thirds majority in the Japanese Diet and a majority in a nation-wide referendum.
It should not be difficult to get any amendment through parliament since important sectors within the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, are in favour.
A negative reaction is predictable among Japan's Asian neighbours. Even before the LDP convention, Chinese analysts were already describing the 'new' Japan as a nation that was becoming increasingly conservative, oppressive and militarist.
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