For the first time in more than half a century, the postwar Constitution came up for formal and substantial discussion in the Diet on Thursday. To begin, the Constitutional Review Council solicited expert opinions from two constitutional scholars and examined how the current Constitution came into being.
To no one's surprise, the witnesses solicited by the governing parties -- Professor Osamu Nishi of Komazawa University and Professor Takenori Aoyama of Nihon University -- argued to the effect that the current Constitution had been "imposed" on Japan under pressure from the Allied Forces, and that the roles played by the GHQ and Gen. Douglas MacArthur apparently violated the 1945 Potsdam Declaration's stipulation that the Japanese people should decide Japan's political system.
Members of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Liberal Party followed their parties' lines, which take the position that the national charter should be rewritten because it has "defects." A member of New Komeito, yet another coalition partner, emphasized the significance of the war-renouncing clause (Article 9). A Liberal Party member pointed to the futility in discussing whether the Constitution had been "imposed" or not. Members of the Japan Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party argued that the document itself should be adapted to fit the ideals of the Constitution.