The Liberal Democratic Party on March 17 held its first party convention since it returned to power following its victory in the Dec. 16 Lower House election and adopted an action plan stressing the importance of winning back control of the Upper House in the coming election this summer.
At the convention, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "We will fight it out in the Upper House election and build a Japan one can be proud of." Such a statement smacks of arrogance, no doubt fueled by the LDP's landslide election win and the Abe Cabinet's high approval rating. Mr. Abe should make efforts to tangibly improve people's well-being instead of being obsessed with constitutional revisions that are not essential and not urgent.
The LDP proposes to change the Constitution's "no-war" Article 9 to create full-fledged armed forces. But its draft lacks a mechanism to stop deployment of the armed forces for military missions overseas because it allows such deployment for the purpose of taking part in an international activity to protect peace and security. Under the draft, basic human rights could be restricted in the name of "public interest and public order."