80 Years after Japan's Constitution Was Promulgated: Some 14,000 Rally outside the Diet against Constitutional Revision
Some 14,000 people, according to the organisers, rallied in front of the National Diet Building in Tokyo on the afternoon of November 3, opposing constitutional revision and calling for Japan's pacifist constitution to be protected. The day marked 80 years since the Constitution of Japan was promulgated.
The constitution was promulgated on November 3, 1946, and took effect on May 3, 1947. Its Article 9 renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. The government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pressing for constitutional revision, citing a worsening security environment and social change, and debate led by the ruling parties is under way. Rally participants held placards reading "No to war" and "The constitution is the foundation of peace" and chanted calls to defend the constitution.
Tomoko Tamura, chair of the Japanese Communist Party, told the rally that Takaichi had failed to learn the lessons of war and that it was worrying for such a prime minister to propose changing the constitution. Former Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki also spoke, calling on people to raise their voices, on the basis of the constitution, to ensure war never happens again. The Mainichi Shimbun said in an editorial the same day that only by playing a diplomatic role and advocating "no war" could the Japanese government achieve peace.
It was the second large rally outside the Diet within a week: on the evening of October 30, nearly 10,000 people gathered at the same spot to protest the Takaichi government's moves on nuclear policy and military expansion, including discussion of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Self-Defense Forces and a possible change to the wording on the Three Non-Nuclear Principles when security documents are revised at the end of the year.
Source: Kyodo News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于东京的日本国会议事堂（资料图）。照片 CC BY-SA 4.0，作者 Kakidai，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The National Diet Building in Tokyo, Japan (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, by Kakidai, via Wikimedia Commons.
