The Abe administration's plan to change the interpretation of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution so that Japan can exercise the right to collective self-defense and its push for a bill to allow the government to designate almost all information concerning defense and security as "special secrets" — thus jeopardizing freedom of the press and the people's right to know — are dangerous moves that must be thoroughly discussed by the Diet in the current extraordinary session that started Oct. 15.
The Diet also must fully scrutinize the Abe administration's moves to restart some of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors that are now offline. The opposition parties should highlight the irrationality of the government and power industry's efforts to restart the dormant nuclear plants at a time when the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant continues — and growing worse in some respects — and in view of the fact that Japan is an extremely quake-prone country and that another large-scale nuclear accident would cause irreparable damage.
Mr. Banri Kaieda, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, posed questions concerning the leaks of radioactive water from the Fukushima plant to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Mr. Abe said that the government will push forward efforts to solve the issue.