Concerning a possible change in the government's long-standing constitutional interpretation that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution prohibits Japan from exercising the right to collective self-defense, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared at a Feb. 12 session of the Lower House Budget Committee that he is the "highest responsible person" as far as the government's constitutional interpretation is concerned. This is a highly problematic statement for a prime minister to make.
Abe ignores the fact that successive governments have upheld the current interpretation that bans the exercise of the right to collective self-defense on the basis of studies done by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau over several decades. He also forgets the fact that those governments confirmed the interpretation in question-and-answer sessions in the Diet.
Abe must realize that an established constitutional interpretation inherited by successive governments is not something a prime minister can freely change.