The Consequence

Whenever there is a loser, for sure there is a consequence to be paid. For Japan, losing in the Word War II means losing the absolute sovereignty of the emperor, the type of government stated in the Meiji Constitution, and the controversial renouncing its right to wage war. The last one is a major blow for the Japanese because how can we really call Japan number 1 when it can not protect its own state from terrorism? Even though Japan has aided numerous countries through its immense donations and continues to build the latest technologies, it does not have the greatest right every state has which is using military force for offense and defense. Like what Niccolò Machiavelli said in his book “The Prince,” “It is better to be feared than to be loved.” And that is exactly what I think Japan wants to be in this time of countless terrorism. However, no matter how much Japan wants a revision on their constitution, doing so is still a failure.

Time’s Up
When the new constitution was already implemented in May 3, 1947, Australia and New Zealand proposed that Japan could review the said constitution but only before a year it goes into effect until two years after it goes into effect thus the FEC adopted this policy. It would have been a good proposal despite the time constraints because this would allow Japan to observe the effect of the new constitution on the citizens and maybe the Article 9 of the constitution would have been redrafted. However, the said policy was only announced a year after thus the government was already deducted a year minus the review policy. This year could have allowed them to start observing the effects in the society and the people. Who was to blame for this? Mac Arthur informed Prime Minister Yoshida only that year and not the year the constitution was implemented. In 1948, the constitution was already two years old and some in the government and the Diet wanted to review the constitution already however the public showed little interest. So how can they review the effects when the prime subjects were not interested in supporting the review? By 1949, the constitution had already reached its third year thus the constitution could not be reviewed anymore so the FEC abandoned the government’s request for a review in that same year’s May. So going back to the present, Japan wants to redraft its constitution, but how can it do it now when in the past only three years after the implementation of the constitution, the government and the diet were not allowed to review it? Well you could say that now it is a different situation because the public is showing interest in doing so but not everyone in Japan is agreeing with its revision especially those who experienced World War II


Everybody Counts
You could say that revising the Japanese constitution is like making a horse fit in the hole of the needle. It is impossible to do so because a society which greatly embraces groupism means that everyone’s consent matters so and how can Japan make a decision when some are opposing? Conservatives and nationalists attempted to revise the constitution after 1952 however they too were disappointed because according to Article 96 of the Japanese Constitution, amending it required the two-thirds approval of the members of both houses of the National Diet before they can be presented to the people in a referendum. But how can you get that much approval when the people occupying more than one-third of the Diet seats were not in favor of a revision? Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would also not want a revision because it was giving them an advantage. Adding on, even the prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1982 until 1987 who was a strong advocate of constitutional revision could not impose his belief so how can the government and the people do so? You must be wondering why in the world was the process for amending the constitution made to be so difficult? Well the culprits are the American authors of the constitution who greatly prohibited the Japanese to make a change in the regime fundamentals they had imposed.

No Reason
Even though the Japanese youth was able to grasp the importance of their state’s military force, it is still not enough to win the approval of the international community in allowing Japan to revise the article 9 of their constitution. And even though this we are all in a new century, the terrible wounds which Japan had inflicted deep in our, China’s, and Korea’s history would always be there and would always be a strong reason for disapproving Japan to hold the right of use of force. We knew their capabilities before and now that they are a stronger state, their military force is really something to be greatly feared. Watching the interview of Mr. Akazaki, the advisor to Prime Minister Abe, the interviewer was right when he said that Japan’s reason of revising the Article 9 of the constitution was weak and insufficient. Just because China’s $41 million budget for military spending is increasing and that of Japan’s $40 million is turning the opposite direction is a pathetic reason because China has over a billion population to protect and Japan only has a million. Adding on, Japan also reasoned that Korea is kidnapping their people so they need to use military force however Japan is already backed up by the United States in terms of self defense so having the world’s greatest power to protect them should already be sufficient for Japan.

Unfortunate Event
For Japan to revise their constitution especially Article 9 would take a very long time and courting not only internally but externally as well. Article 9 was a price Japan paid because they lost in the World War II and brought a great number of damages to Asian countries. This particular article continues to fuel their Western insecurity even though they have achieved what no other Asian country had achieved in terms of economic growth and technological advancement. Well yes it is embarrassing that a country so great only could stand through the side lines while American and British soldiers use military force against Iraqi enemies. To think about it, other Western countries had also contributed to the damages of World War II but their international right to use force was not taken away from them but unfortunately everyone’s eyes and pointing finger were on the Japanese. Let’s just all hope that Japan would not one day wake up and remove its chains from the limit of using military force and wage massive war against states because from the way I am seeing it, Japan is absolutely capable of doing so. From the new generation being drilled to understand the importance of their military force to the government’s budget for military spending, a new Japan is not far from rising.