Path to Constitutional Revision Unclear under LDP-JIP Coalition

Tokyo, Jan. 4 (Jiji Press)–While Japan’s two governing parties share the goal of revising the country’s Constitution, differences between their stances are now becoming evident. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is seeking a realistic approach in amending the supreme law. In contrast, the Japan Innovation Party, which replaced Komeito as the LDP’s coalition partner in October, is taking a hawkish stance, such as proposing the inclusion of a reference to the possession of national defense forces in the top law. Komeito, also seen to be a supporter of a constitutional revision, is cool to the division in the current ruling camp, with some in the party saying that amending the Constitution is distant under the LDP-JIP coalition. “The dissolution of the coalition with Komeito has made it easier for our party to stress a conservative stance,” Keiji Furuya, chairman of the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee and former chairman of the party’s Headquarters for the Realization of Revision of the Constitution, said at a meeting in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan, on Dec. 21, underscoring his eagerness to revise the Constitution. During its time in the ruling coalition, Komeito served as a brake on the LDP to prevent it from acting recklessly on the issue of constitutional revision, while taking a flexible stance on including the existence of the Self-Defense Forces in the Constitution. As the JIP, which is aggressive on constitutional revision, teamed up with the LDP following Komeito’s exit from the coalition, some conservatives in the LDP hope that the efforts to revise the Constitution will accelerate. The coalition agreement between the LDP and the JIP includes a timetable for constitutional amendment. Specifically, it stipulates that the two parties would set up a joint council on a revision of the Constitution’s pacifist Article 9 and other issues during the 2025 extraordinary session of the Diet, the country’s parliament, and aim to submit a draft emergency cause to be added to the supreme law to the Diet in fiscal 2026. The council has already held several meetings. But the gap between the two parties over Article 9 is becoming apparent. The LDP previously sought to include in the article a reference to the country’s possession of national defense forces. However, it has now shifted to a stance of seeking to maintain the SDF by introducing a new sentence to Article 9, while preserving its first sentence, which renounces war, and its second sentence, which rejects the possession of land, sea and air forces and other war potential. In contrast, the JIP insists on deleting the second sentence and instead adding a reference to the possession of national defense forces. The party is also proposing that Japan should shift from its current exclusively defense-oriented policy to a more proactive defense policy, and is calling for the nation to be fully allowed to exercise the right to collective self-defense. Some in the party are even seeking to revive the conscription system. The LDP and the JIP are unlikely to reach an agreement for the time being. Even if they do, the ruling bloc plus Komeito and the Democratic Party for the People, which is also positive on amending the Constitution, would fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to propose constitutional amendment in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet. Komeito is distancing itself from the ruling bloc debates on constitutional amendment. Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito has said that the talks between the LDP and the JIP could lead to changing the concept of pacifism and are therefore “a little too reckless.” The LDP-JIP coalition agreement also stipulates that standing committees be established as soon as possible at the commissions on the Constitution of both the Lower House and the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, to discuss clauses for a revised Constitution. However, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which holds the post of chair of the commissions and is increasingly taking a confrontational stance against the ruling camp, has rejected this for being premature. “The LDP’s coalition with the JIP has made the path to constitutional amendment unclear,” a former cabinet minister said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]