Japan Ruling Bloc Proposes Constitutional Amendment Drafting Panel

Tokyo, April 9 (Jiji Press)--Japan's ruling parties on Thursday proposed establishing a constitutional amendment drafting committee soon within the Commission on the Constitution in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

At the first debate of the commission in the ongoing Diet session, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as five opposition parties, presented their positions on how to proceed with deliberations.

The plan to introduce an article on national emergencies "has reached a stage to hammer out a draft at long last," Yoshitaka Shindo of the LDP said. The party has long discussed creating the article.

For themes whose points of discussion have been defined, including proposals to explicitly refer to the Self-Defense Forces in Article 9, "We propose to move subsequently to a step examining draft article clauses," he said.

Shindo called for the commission to meet weekly in order to accelerate the deliberations.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]