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2015/07/28
Debate over security legislation starts in Upper House, DPJ’s Fukuyama attacks government position
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On July 28, the debate on the security legislation started in the Special Committee on Legislation for the Peace and Security of Japan and the International Community. The DPJ’s Tetsuro Fukuyama took to the podium, attacking the government regarding issues with the legislation and contradictions in ministers’ responses to questions.
Fukuyama asked Prime Minister Abe for to confirm his perception, saying, “Use of the right to collective defense, whether it be for self-defense or defense of another nation, is participation in war. Suppose that Japan has not suffered an attack, but Country A has attacked Country B, and these countries have entered a conflict or a state of war. If Japan then receives a request for assistance from Country B with which it has a close relationship, then Japan can use force when a situation that threatens her survival has developed. Would we be right in describing this as participation in a war?” The Prime Minister replied, “We will only be able to use force when a situation meets the new three conditions” and did not answer the question as to whether this amounted to participation in a war.
In reply to the Prime Minister’s insincere response, Fukuyama pointed out, “Even if it can be described as a limited use of the right to collective self-defense, SDF troops would still go to the battle ground. The Abe administration’s deceitfulness is demonstrated by their failure to describe the use of force as “war”. The Japanese people have recognized the position of the Abe administration as they refuse to admit that the SDF will participate in a war and say that the risk to the SDF will not increase or that there will be no change from an exclusively defensive posture.” He stressed that by repeating such responses, the Prime Minister had caused growing anger among the public.
Furthermore, Fukuyama referred to the fact that Ichiro Yoshikuni, Director-General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau who had been responsible for drawing up the government’s 1972 view [on the right to collective self-defense ], had referred to the Sunagawa ruling [which the Abe administration is using to justify the use of the right to collective self-defense] in his answer in the Diet. After this Yoshikuni had stated, “It is not written in Article 9 that Japan has the right to self-defense, nor that it does not have the right to collective self-defense. If we think of the origins of Article 9, our opinion is the natural conclusion of this discussion is that Japan cannot use the right to collective self-defense.” Fukuyama asked the Prime Minister why, from looking at this answer of Yoshikuni’s, he thought that the use of the right to collective self-defense would now be permitted. Abe responded, “As conditions are changing, we have decided that, the concept of using the right to collective self-defense in situations which threaten the survival of our nation exists within the application of the necessary self-defense measures. In other words we have changed our application of the 1972 view.”
Fukuyama criticized the government, saying, “I have absolutely no idea why it should be possible to use the right to collective self-defense as a result of such an application. Won’t this cause a loss of legal stability? How can such an opportunistic argument for legal application ever be understood?”
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