TOKYO, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will present its draft proposals to amend Japan's pacifist Constitution to the upcoming extraordinary Diet session without first deliberating with its coalition partner Komeito party, sources close to the matter said Friday.
The ruling party now plans to submit its proposals to the commissions on the Constitution at both Diet chambers during the extraordinary session, amid reluctance from its junior coalition partner at revising the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Supreme Charter.
Komeito chief Natsuo Yamaguchi has rejected calls from Abe to enter prior consultations on the revisions with the ruling party. Hinting at a significant rift in the coalition, he stated at a press briefing earlier this week on the matter that the revisions in question should first be debated at the House of Representatives' Commission on the Constitution.
Abe, who was re-elected as LDP president last month amid a backlash from ruling party rank-and-file members, has made it his career goal of amending Japan's Constitution for the first time since the end of World War II, and wishes to amend a key clause to officially reference the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), despite Komeito's reluctance.
The move, according to Abe and the LDP, is purportedly to clear up the current constitutional ambiguity of the SDF, which constitutional experts and scholars on the matter, as well as civic groups and significant portions of the population here, are opposed to.
Abe has already railroaded controversial security bills through both houses of parliament by using his ruling camp's majority in both houses of parliament, which has caused national uproar by those opposed to the bills and the manner in which they were passed.
Critics of the prime minister's legacy-led move to amend the Constitution believe that Abe, to a greater-or-lesser extend, wishes to remilitarize Japan and see its forces increase their global footprint and operate in scenarios in the future that may not be solely defensive in nature.
The current Constitution resolutely forbids this with Article 9 of the pacifist charter stating that the Japanese people forever renounce war and that land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained and that war will never be used as a means of settling international disputes.
Article 9 of the Constitution, as it currently reads, is held sacred by the majority of citizens in Japan who have protested vehemently against Abe and the LDP at every juncture as they have tried to put the pieces in place to amend the charter.
In the months ahead, Abe and the LDP, after their efforts to encourage parliamentary debate on the highly divisive issue, will try to secure a two-thirds majority vote on the issue in both houses of parliament, but will likely find this harder than first thought as growing numbers in the opposition camp, including the main Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, are opposed to Abe's unilateral plans.
Abe and the LDP, would, thereafter, have to secure a majority vote on the issue in a public referendum amid rising public resistance to the move, with recent polls showing that the majority of citizens here are opposed to the revision.
"Even if Abe manages to force a revision through parliament, he would face a referendum, raising the prospect of a Brexit-style political meltdown if the people vote against him," Yu Uchiyama, a political scientist at the University of Tokyo, said of the matter recently.
