2024-02-19
Resend！
2019-02-18
I will write about the Asahi Shimbun’s maliciousness at a later date, but another root of the problem is that universities educating future civil servants have many professors like those described below, whom it would be no exaggeration to call traitors to their country.
The following is from today’s Sankei Shimbun editorial.
Which Side Is Spreading Falsehoods?
The SDF Recruitment Issue
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sparked debate by calling for the Self-Defense Forces to be explicitly named in the Constitution to rectify a situation in which, he says, more than 60% of local governments are not cooperating with the recruitment of SDF personnel.
The Asahi Shimbun, opposition parties, and others have criticized the prime minister’s remarks as incorrect, saying that “about 90%” of local governments cooperate with recruitment.
But is it not Prime Minister Abe who is pointing out facts, while the Asahi Shimbun, opposition parties, and others are spreading falsehoods?
Prime Minister Abe told the Diet that, from more than 60% of local governments, “We are not receiving the cooperation necessary for recruitment. This is truly regrettable.”
He argued that explicitly naming the Self-Defense Forces in the Constitution would mean that “this kind of atmosphere will change.”
The Self-Defense Forces Act and its Enforcement Order designate the submission of materials necessary for recruitment as a statutory entrusted function of local governments.
The Ministry of Defense asks local governments to provide lists containing the names, dates of birth, sexes, and addresses of prospective recruits, either on paper or in electronic form.
In fiscal 2017, 36% of all 1,741 municipalities complied with the request, while the remaining 64% did not provide the information.
In 53% of municipalities, excluding those with small populations in depopulated areas, personnel engaged in recruitment had no choice but to use the provisions of the Basic Resident Registration Act to copy vast amounts of material by hand or inspect the records.
The Asahi Shimbun, opposition parties, and others add this 53% to the 36% and criticize the prime minister, saying that about 90% cooperated.
Are they serious?
Although providing the information on paper or in electronic form would have sufficed, these municipalities did not do so, instead forcing personnel handling recruitment in the field to undertake an enormous amount of work.
Such conduct cannot be called cooperation.
They can hardly complain if they are accused of sabotaging recruitment work.
The prime minister’s statement that “it is a fact that we are not receiving cooperation from more than 60%” makes more sense.
Their dismissal of the prime minister’s concerns through strained reasoning is probably motivated by a desire to say that this “does not constitute grounds for constitutional revision” (the Asahi Shimbun’s editorial of February 14).
Yet many constitutional scholars cite Article 9 of the Constitution in arguing that the Self-Defense Forces are unconstitutional.
Everyone knows that an atmosphere of aversion to, and disregard for, the development and use of the Self-Defense Forces exists among civil servants strongly committed to preserving the current Constitution.
This has led to a lack of cooperation with SDF recruitment.
Debate on constitutional revision must be vigorously advanced in the Commissions on the Constitution of both houses of the Diet and elsewhere.
*I will write about the Asahi Shimbun’s maliciousness at a later date, but another root of the problem is that universities educating future civil servants have many professors like those described below, whom it would be no exaggeration to call traitors to their country.