Proposals establishing the procedure for a referendum on constitutional reform were rushed through parliament last week. While both politics and legal procedures preclude the actual tabling of reform proposals before 2010, the stage is being set with no-holds-barred determination by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and company to rewrite the Constitution.
In the case of such an overwhelmingly important issue as constitutional reform, it is only right that the people should be asked their will in as direct a manner as possible. Yet referendums are tricky things. They can indeed serve as the tool whereby people exercise their rightful power to determine the course of national policy. But they can also be used by self-serving politicians to legitimize their own actions and ulterior motives.
In the hands of such cynical people, a referendum can become a dangerous weapon. We in Japan with no past history of referendums should forewarn ourselves of the darker side of political thinking often behind the promotion of such a process.