This past May 3 saw active public discussions surrounding the Constitution since the day marked the 70th anniversary of the postwar Constitution taking effect in 1947. In particular, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proposal for amending Article 9 to clarify the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces — and his expression of hope to get the amendment implemented in 2020 — put the public discourse on the nation's supreme code into a new phase.
In the first place, a constitution is a set of rules that define how the state powers should be exercised. It exists to protect basic human rights and social fairness from arbitrary rule by those in power. In today's Japan, however, the government itself is trying to tear down that basic principle.
When asked in the Diet what he meant in his video message shown in a pro-amendment event on May 3, the prime minister told the lawmaker who questioned him to instead read an interview he gave to the Yomiuri Shimbun daily. That was the most outrageous statement made in the history of Japan's constitutional politics.