The coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito has passed a bill through the Lower House to set procedures for a national referendum to revise the Constitution, and sent it to the Upper House. This bill, however, is flawed since it does not mandate a minimum-turnout rate for referendums to be considered valid.
The move by the ruling coalition comes as no surprise as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's key goal is to revise the Constitution. Mr. Abe, however, has failed to clarify in concrete terms his assessment of the Constitution and Japan's postwar system under it. Instead he merely speaks of "breaking away" from the postwar regime. Such an ambiguous phrase only serves to hamper serious discussions of constitutional issues.
The referendum-procedure bill must be equitable and neutral to guarantee that referendums are conducted with utmost fairness. So it is vital that the bill be discussed in a cool-headed, rational manner. But instead the legislation has become politicized, as seen by the confusion during the voting of the Lower House's special panel on the Constitution. The blame for this primarily lies with Mr. Abe's determination to make constitutional revision an issue in the upcoming Upper House election.
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