editorial

The Japanese reactionaries' deep-rooted militarist ambition is getting more reckless.

Recently, the opposition Japanese Restoration Party openly asserted that Paragraph 2, Article 9 of the constitution which stipulates "non-possession of combat capability" should be deleted, the exercise of the "right to collective self-defense" comprehensively approved and the possession of the "right to self-defense" and "defense force" specified in the constitution.

The Japanese conservative party, too, went extremely frantic, claiming that in order to defend Japan, it is necessary to revise the constitution insisting that no war should be fought and that the "crime" of war was compensated for 80 years after the war.

Minor conservative political parties have joined in the constitution revision led by the Liberal Democratic Party. This is a serious development of the situation which shows that all the militarist forces of Japan are rallying towards the goal of overseas aggression.

As recognized by the international community, Japan's political arena is the theatre of fascist rowdyism in which ultra-right elements full of militarist hysteria are rampant.

It is the stark reality of Japanese political circles that the ruling and opposition parties speak with one voice to realize the goal of completing a war state even though they bite each other for their ambition to seize power and their interests and policies.

The ultra-right conservative group of opposition parties including the Japanese Restoration Party is now at the forefront of the constitution revision because the policy of the Liberal Democratic Party, which had been hell-bent on militarization of society as the "vanguard" of the constitution revision, has fallen.

It is the Liberal Democratic Party which has set the constitution revision as its "basic policy" and tried in every way to cook up the war constitution.

In September last year the LDP group thought out a cunning method of creating a new paragraph and specifying the existence of the "Self-Defense Forces", while keeping Article 9 of the present constitution, which stipulates "renunciation of war" and "non-possession of combat capability”, as it is. And it held the party congress in March this year and pledged again to realize the early constitution revision.

But the LDP had suffered a series of defeats in both houses and was reduced to a minority to lose its function. Prime Minister Ishiba, who had pursued an ambitious plan to enforce the constitution revision that his predecessors had failed to do, was forced to announce resignation under the mounting pressure at home.

The decline of the LDP lit the red lamp on the road ahead of the ultra-right conservative forces who have been keen on reviving the "great Japanese empire" and realizing the old dream of the "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" by revising the "pacifist constitution" for the worse.

The militarist political parties, who felt extreme fear, are now bent on the constitution revision by staking their destiny on it with the ill intention to throw their weight behind the daily-decaying LDP and achieve the completion of the war state in the shortest possible time.

The reality clearly proves that the political climate and inveterate nature of Japan dominated by ultra-nationalism obsessed with hatred and conquest of other nations have remained unchanged today as in the past.

However, the frenzy of the "shock brigades" for constitution revision aimed at cooking up a war state and reviving an aggressor state will only jeopardize the future of Japan.