First up, from ZeroHedge:
Following the landslide victory by Prime Minister Abe in Japan's Sunday elections, which left his ruling coalition with a supermajority allowing him to change Japan's constitution, Abe wasted no time in signalling a push towards his long-held goal of revising Japan's post-war, pacifist constitution, however as Reuters reported earlier, Abe would "need to convince a divided public to succeed."A couple days ago the Japan Times noted:
Parties in favor of amending the U.S.-drafted charter won nearly 80% of the seats in Sunday’s lower house election, leaving the small, new Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) as the biggest group opposed to Abe’s proposed changes. Still, Abe claimed he wanted to get other parties on board, including Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike’s new conservative Party of Hope, and was not insisting on a target of changing the constitution by 2020 that he floated this year.
Yet, despite Abe's soothing vision, just one day after the election Japan was already setting the groundwork for creating the strawman that would be needed to get public support largely behind Abe's militant venture.
As a result, Japan’s defense minister said on Monday that North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities have grown to an “unprecedented, critical and imminent” level, requiring “different responses” to the threat.
The minister, Itsunori Odonera, was quoted by AP as saying that this rising threat compels his country to endorse the U.S. view that “all options” must be considered, which President Donald Trump says includes possible military action. And since this pivot would require a revised constitution, the next step is already in play....MORE
Japan waters down text of annual anti-nuclear resolution to imply acceptable use of nukes
And finally, reaching back to our January 22, 2013 post:
Shinzō Abe and "the Funniest Song Ever Written About Any Japanese State Document...Ever!"
"Funniest Song" quote from reviewer Richard Foss - The Los Angeles Reader.Saturday's post "March of Folly: China Calls U.S. Position on Japan-China Dispute "Betrayal" got me thinking about the Japanese constitution, specifically Article 9:
ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.Prime Minister Abe really, really wants to get rid of Article 9 and after the December elections has a super-duper [technical term] majority, 76%, of lower house members who feel the same way.
-U.S. Library of Congress
One of my senior partners used to get drunk and sing:...MORE
