Lower House Division Outlines Emergency Clause for Constitution

Tokyo, May 13 (Jiji Press)–The Legislative Bureau at Japan’s House of Representatives and others have drafted an outline of an emergency clause that may be included in the Constitution as part of a planned reform of the country’s fundamental law. The draft outline calls for extending lawmakers’ terms of office and allowing the issuance of an emergency ordinance by the cabinet in times of emergencies such as large-scale natural disasters, sources familiar with the matter said. The draft was shown to a meeting of executive members of the Commission on the Constitution in the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Tuesday. Political parties in both the ruling and opposition camps are slated to express their views on the outline at a meeting of the commission Thursday, with full-fledged deliberations scheduled to be held May 21. An emergency clause is one of the focuses in the proposed amendment of the Constitution. The draft outline sets four conditions for a situation where it is difficult to hold elections, which would allow the extension of lawmakers’ terms. They are large-scale natural disasters including earthquakes, the spread of infectious diseases, social disorder such as civil unrest and armed attacks from outside the country. The cabinet would designate such a situation, which would then be approved by the Diet. The dissolution of the Lower House and constitutional amendments would be banned during the extension of lawmakers’ terms. The draft did not show an upper limit for the duration of the extension of lawmakers’ terms while stating that there are opinions calling for setting the length of the period at “one year” or “six months.” According to the draft, the potential emergency government ordinance would be issued when it is difficult to maintain the functions of the Diet and would have the same effect as a law. The government must obtain an ex-post facto approval from the Diet for the emergency ordinance, the draft says. The draft also includes a provision allowing online parliamentary deliberations. The outline was drawn up based on past deliberations by the Lower House’s Commission on the Constitution. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, hope to speed up constitutional reform discussions based on the draft outline. In talks with reporters after Tuesday’s executive meeting of the Commission on the Constitution, the LDP’s Yoshitaka Shindo, the ruling bloc’s leader in the commission, touted the draft outline, saying, “It will serve as the foundation for deliberations from now on.” Meanwhile, the major opposition Centrist Reform Alliance’s Toru Kunishige, head of the opposition camp in the commission, said, “A deadline for convening an extraordinary Diet session and the handling of the prime minister’s right to dissolve the Lower House are also important issues for discussion.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]