Aso's Nazi-inspired quip rubs Seoul the wrong way
Outspoken Finance Minister Taro Aso causes another international stir by urging Japanese politicians bent on revising the Constitution to learn from the way Germany under the Nazis amended the Weimar charter.
The Supreme Court convenes its Grand Bench to consider disputes over a Civil Code provision for less inheritance for illegitimate children, indicating it may reverse its earlier interpretation of the provision as constitutional.
A group of lawyers disputing the vote-weight disparity in national elections has enlisted plaintiffs in all 47 prefectural electoral districts for lawsuits to invalidate the results of the upcoming Upper House election. Lawyer Hidetoshi Masunaga sounded optimistic about achieving the group's goal at a news ...
Books on Constitution selling well amid amendment debate
With debates firing up across Japan on whether the pacifist postwar Constitution should be revised, books on the issue are selling strongly, prompting publishers to take advantage. Law students preparing for the bar exam have traditionally been the principal buyers of books on the Constitution. ...
The LDP constitution, article by article: a preview of things to come?
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for constitutional change. Yet he is playing the political huckster by proposing to first only fiddle with the amendment procedure in Article 96, lowering the threshold for the process to move forward from the approval of two-thirds of ...
Constitutional revision debate could make or break 'Abenomics'
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's popularity continues — the latest Nikkei and TV Tokyo survey shows his approval rating at 66 percent, his Liberal Democratic Party's victory in the Upper House election seems highly probable, "Abenomics" is still on course, and even medium-term economic growth ...
Constitutional revision: Proposed Abe-rights look to be all wrong
After the Upper House elections on July 21, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may try to revise the Constitution. This longstanding agenda is now within reach because the Liberal Democratic Party he heads might be able to rally the necessary two-thirds of votes in both ...
Abe wants to gut public protections: expert
If the Liberal Democratic Party succeeds in rewriting the Constitution, it would severely scale back fundamental human rights and strip the public of various civil liberties, a prominent constitutional scholar warns. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while focusing for now on his economic policies, looks set ...
Before the July 21 election, don't expect the LDP to talk much about the need to revise Article 96 of the Constitution, but it's in the party's campaign platform.
Tokyo: Do you think conscription — in Japan or elsewhere — is a good thing or a bad idea?
I think conscription is a bad idea because we always say people are equal and can do what they want, and I myself am all for liberty and freedom of choice. To that end, people, whoever they are, must be able to do what ...
Tweak the Constitution now, think later?
Whether it happens or not depends heavily on the results of the upcoming House of Councilors elections, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly announced his intention to make amending the Constitution a campaign issue. Although his Liberal Democratic Party issued a comprehensive amendment proposal ...
