Abe's constitutional amendment remarks infringe legislative process: Opposition

Japan's main opposition party on Thursday described Abe's push to amend the nation's pacifist constitution for the first time since the end of World War II as being "a serious infringement on the legislative process."

Following Abe making a televised address recently announcing his intention to amend a key pacifist clause of the nation's charter to legitimize the existence of the Self-Defense Forces by 2020, the main opposition Democratic Party has claimed Abe has intervened in the parliamentary process.

At the first lower house commission on constitutional issues convened Thursday since Abe made the proposal, the Democratic Party insisted Abe retract his proposal.

"It is the Diet that has the right to initiate a constitutional revision. Prime Minister Abe's remarks have therefore been a serious infringement on the legislative process," said Masaharu Nakagawa, a lower house member.

"We ask for the commission to adopt a resolution to lodge a stern protest against Prime Minister Abe and to retract his remarks on this issue," said Nakagawa, who previously held the education minister and disaster minister's portfolios.

Abe's proposal has been met with staunch opposition from both ruling and opposition camps, who believe the only way to proceed with the constitutional amendment of such a thorny issue is through careful parliamentary discussion and debate, not the "steamrolling" tactics Abe is known for.

Pro-amendment factions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its Komeito ally, as well as in the opposition bloc, share a broad consensus that even though the ruling camp has the two-thirds majority necessary in both houses of parliament to bring about a national referendum on the issue, gaining the basic understanding of all parties is an essential first step for the motion to proceed.

Abe has been lambasted for trying to circumnavigate essential parliamentary dialogue and consensus building and using his majority to muscle the sensitive amendment into the new charter.

Along with Democratic Party members, Japanese Communist Party member Seiken Akamine blasted Abe's recent remarks as an "undue intervention into issues that should be handled by the Diet," adding that any change to the war-renouncing article in the constitution would change the charter's pacifist nature entirely.

Abe has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to change the constitution while in office and has mentioned that it has been a major LDP goal since the charter came into effect after the war.

Abe has also said that his maternal grandfather and former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who was imprisoned as a Class A war crime suspect, was also determined to amend the constitution. Endit