Japan’s New Centrist Party Tolerates Security Legislation

Tokyo, Jan. 19 (Jiji Press)–The Centrist Reform Alliance, a new political party launched by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, a former ruling party, said in its basic policies released Monday that it is constitutional for Japan to exercise its self-defense right in a so-called survival-threatening situation. The new party also showed its tolerance of restarting nuclear power reactors that have been confirmed safe. The basic policies, which will serve as the foundation for the party’s campaign pledges for the upcoming general election for the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, feature realistic approaches on security and energy issues apparently to demonstrate that the new centrist party is capable of running the government. The CDP has drastically changed its stance on national security, prioritizing the establishment of the new party with Komeito, the former partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and now on the opposition side. The CDP had demanded the abolition of what it claims are unconstitutional parts of the national security legislation. A survival-threatening situation defined under the security legislation refers to a situation in which an armed attack occurs against a foreign country that has a close relationship with Japan, threatening Japan’s survival and posing a clear danger of fundamentally overturning the people’s right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The Centrist Reform Alliance’s basic policies say that the party aims to create a society that does not depend on nuclear energy for power generation in the future, but do not include a clause demanding the elimination of nuclear power generation, which is upheld in the CDP’s policy platform. Comprising Lower House members from the CDP and Komeito, the Centrist Reform Alliance was formed last week in the run-up to the upcoming Lower House general election. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, president of the LDP, announced Monday her decision to dissolve the Lower House on Friday, at the start of this year’s ordinary Diet session, and hold the subsequent general election Feb. 8. The Centrist Reform Alliance’s basic policies have five pillars–changing policies to realize sustainable economic growth, building a new social security model, realizing an inclusive society, formulating realistic foreign and defense policies and deepening constitutional revision talks, and constantly addressing political and electoral system reforms. The basic policies call for permanently reducing the consumption tax rate to zero for food products as a measure against inflation, and for setting up a new state-run fund and utilizing existing government funds to make up for the resultant tax revenue drop. Also included in the policies is the early introduction of a refundable tax credit program. The new centrist party aims to strengthen regulations on recipients of political donations from corporations and other organizations as well as to promote a selective dual surname system for married couples. The party emphasizes that it will deepen discussions on constitutional amendment, including on the status of the Self-Defense Forces, in a responsible attitude. In its policy platform, released also Monday, the Centrist Reform Alliance says that it upholds, as its basic philosophy, humanism that respects life, livelihood and survival to the maximum. The platform also calls on the party to steadily advance people-first policies while preventing confrontation and fragmentation. “We will show the difference between the society we plan to create and that Prime Minister Takaichi is aiming for” in the lead-up to the Feb. 8 general election, CDP Secretary-General Jun Azumi said at a press conference Monday. “I hope our new party will serve as the first step toward the creation of a large group of centrist forces,” Komeito Secretary-General Makoto Nishida told the same press conference. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]