LDP, Nippon Ishin to Advance Talks over Constitutional Revision

Tokyo, Nov. 14 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), have held the first meeting of their working-level forum of discussions on constitutional amendment. At the meeting Thursday, participants confirmed a policy of accelerating discussions based on the two parties’ coalition agreements, which call on them to aim for submitting a draft emergency clause for addition to the Constitution to the Diet, Japan’s parliament, within fiscal 2026. The two parties are considering proposing by the end of this month that committees to draft new constitutional clauses be set up at the parliamentary commissions on the Constitution. The working-level forum is co-headed by Yoshitaka Shindo, chief of the LDP’s Party Organization and Campaign Headquarters, and former Nippon Ishin leader Nobuyuki Baba. While the ruling pair falls short of a majority in both chambers of the Diet, the two parties plan to present their views on the envisaged emergency clause and pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution, and to deepen their discussions at the next and subsequent meetings of the working-level framework. “First, we will advance discussions on the areas where we can reach agreement,” Shindo told reporters after Thursday’s meeting, stressing the two parties’ resolve to speed up work on compiling the ruling bloc’s draft clauses through working-level discussions. Baba said he wants to deepen discussions about regulations on television commercials related to a national referendum that would ask the public whether they support or oppose constitutional amendments and about a national referendum publicity council, which will be set up at the Diet when a constitutional amendment is proposed. Meanwhile, the LDP’s Hajime Funada, the ruling coalition’s chief director at the Commission on the Constitution in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, told reporters Thursday that he will propose setting up a committee to draft new constitutional clauses during a meeting of executives of the commission slated for Nov. 27. The LDP-Nippon Ishin coalition agreements stipulate that such a committee should be a permanent organ. On Thursday, the executive members decided to hold a meeting of the commission Nov. 20, the first during the current extraordinary Diet session. A question-and-answer session will be held at the upcoming meeting regarding a report from members who visited Europe in September on an inspection tour. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]