The campaign for the coming Upper House election will officially kick off July 4, with voting scheduled for July 21. Preparations must include each political party clearly expressing its election promises so that voters can make decisions with conviction.
Although the Liberal Democratic Party may play down its call to change Article 96 of the Constitution as part of its campaign platform, the issue should be considered a key one in the coming election, because altering the clause — which is designed to prevent an imprudent revision of the Constitution — would undermine the foundation of constitutional democracy.
The change would downgrade the status of the Constitution almost to the level of ordinary law, making it easier to weaken or scrap the most fundamental principle of sovereignty resting with the people, the no-war principle as well as crucial constitutional rights — freedom of thought, speech and expression, freedom of assembly and association, freedom from arbitrary arrests, etc.