Ex-Japan Opposition Lawmakers to Form Pro-Constitution Group

Tokyo, Aug. 20 (Jiji Press)--Three former Japanese lawmakers on the opposition side are planning to form a new political organization soon to bring together liberal forces and protect Japan's pacifist Constitution.

Of them, Hiroshi Kawauchi and Tomoko Abe will become co-leaders of the new group, "Goken Liberal Kyosei," or Gorilla. Former Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka will serve as its secretary-general.

Announcing the move on Wednesday, the three, who lost their House of Representatives seats in the February general election for the lower chamber of Japan's parliament, in which they ran from the major opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, called for keeping the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 intact, among other things. Following the election, Abe and Hiraoka quit the CRA.

An official of the CRA, which is in talks with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, both opposition parties, on their possible integration, showed a view that the move by the trio is expected to negatively affect the three-way integration talks.

The CRA was launched in January, in the run-up to the general election, by then Lower House members of the CDP and Komeito. Kawauchi, Abe and Hiraoka all hail from the CDP.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]