Japan marked the 65th anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution on Thursday, and 60 years have passed since the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect on April 28, 1952, ending Japan's occupation by the Allied Powers. Until that day, decrees issued by the occupation forces headquarters had priority over the Constitution.
A conspicuous phenomenon this year is that several political parties — the Liberal Democratic Party, Your Party, Tachiagare Nippon (the Sunrise Party of Japan) and Osaka Ishin-no Kai (Osaka Association for Reform), a local party headed by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto — have put forth proposals for revising the Constitution. It may be that they are trying to create selling points in the next Lower House election by taking advantage of the spread of the feeling of helplessness in society amid the long period of economic stagnation and in the wake of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.
Common sense tells that it is important to take a cautious attitude to these proposals for constitutional revisions because they have cropped up suddenly in the absence of informed public debate on the issues being dealt with by these proposals.