Japan's moves to amend constitution face upper house delays

TOKYO, May 04 (Asia News) - Wednesday marked the 76th year since the Constitution came into effect. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, has expressed his willingness to revise the Constitution during his tenure as LDP leader through September next year.

In the Diet, however, while discussions in the House of Representatives have been gathering speed, debates in the House of Councillors are progressing slowly. Unless both houses of the Diet keep in step with each other on the issue, it may affect the schedule for constitutional amendment.

Kishida has been urging members of both houses to accelerate discussions on constitutional revision.

The number of Diet deliberations on constitutional revision has significantly increased since last year, when the lower house’s Commission on the Constitution started to regularly meet once a week. Last year, this commission met 15 times during the ordinary Diet session and five times during the extraordinary Diet session, far greater than the combined four times in the previous year. In the ordinary Diet session this year, the commission has already met nine times.

The commission has started examining specific items for amendments. ...continue reading

Source: テレ東BIZ

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