Representatives of 12 Japanese civil groups held a rally in Tokyo on Thursday, urging the government to ban all arms exports.
The demonstrators gathered in front of the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters and the National Diet building, where they submitted a formal petition. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, agreed at a meeting on Monday to revise the implementation guidelines of the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology and lift restrictions that limit defense equipment transfers to five noncombat purposes. And they planned to submit the proposal to the cabinet in February next year.
The ruling coalition's plan to significantly relax restrictions on weapons exports has been met with strong opposition from domestic civil groups, as they warn that the move would put Japan on a dangerous path.
The demonstrators urged the government to strictly uphold Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution, which renounces the nation's right to engage in war or to resort to military force to resolve international conflicts.
"The Constitution clearly renounces war as a sovereign right and stipulates that Japan shall not possess land, sea, and air forces. However, despite the Constitution's existence as the cardinal law, they constantly adopt laws that hollow out and weaken the Constitution's spirit. And Japanese companies keep manufacturing and exporting weapons to make profits, which worries me tremendously. I keenly feel that Japan is already at a dangerous edge," said Yoko Sugiura, editor-in-chief of magazine Consumers Union of Japan.
"During the Diet debates, it was the Liberal Democratic Party that formulated the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, a system specifically embodying the ideals of Article 9 of the Constitution. The Japan Innovation Party's claim that Article 9 has nothing to do with arms exports ban and embargo is erroneous both factually and conceptually. And the issue is a very serious," said Koji Sugihara, a representative of the Network Against Japan Arms Trade, a local citizens' group.
"In the spirit of Article 9 of the Constitution, arms exports must be stopped, and the policy of prohibiting weapons must be restored. Given this clear shift to militarization, we fear that if it this goes on, there is no way to guarantee the safety of our lives. So we will continue to appeal to society to collectively ponder on how to stop this trend," said Misaki Nishimura, a representative of the Japan Peace Committee.
Japanese civil groups urge gov't to ban arms exports
