Lower House Division Outlines Emergency Clause for Constitution

Tokyo, May 13 (Jiji Press)--The Legislative Bureau at Japan's House of Representatives and others have drafted an outline of an emergency clause that may be included in the Constitution as part of a planned reform of the country's fundamental law.

The draft outline calls for extending lawmakers' terms of office and allowing the issuance of an emergency ordinance by the cabinet in times of emergencies such as large-scale natural disasters, sources familiar with the matter said.

The draft was shown to a meeting of executive members of the Commission on the Constitution in the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, on Tuesday.

Political parties in both the ruling and opposition camps are slated to express their views on the outline at a meeting of the commission Thursday, with full-fledged deliberations scheduled to be held May 21. An emergency clause is one of the focuses in the proposed amendment of the Constitution.

The draft outline sets four conditions for a situation where it is difficult to hold elections, which would allow the extension of lawmakers' terms. They are large-scale natural disasters including earthquakes, the spread of infectious diseases, social disorder such as civil unrest and armed attacks from outside the country. The cabinet would designate such a situation, which would then be approved by the Diet.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]