Written on June 3, 2019, this essay, drawing on Yoshiko Sakurai’s monthly Sankei Shimbun column, argues that constitutional revision and greater national independence are indispensable if Japan is to preserve peace and prosperity in the Reiwa era.
By citing China’s pressure around the Senkaku Islands, Taiwan, and the Korean Peninsula, as well as the obstruction of the Constitutional Democratic Party and the responsibility of the Liberal Democratic Party, it asserts that constitutional revision is the key to overcoming the crises of Reiwa.

2019-06-03
Constitutional revision is, to begin with, the founding spirit of the Liberal Democratic Party.
It is because of that set of values that many of the people support the Liberal Democratic Party.

It goes without saying that Yoshiko Sakurai too is one of Japan’s treasures.
The following is from her once-a-month serial column published today on pages 1 and 2 of the Sankei Shimbun.
Overcome Reiwa Through Constitutional Revision
The opening of the Heisei era was marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square Incident.
The collapse of the Soviet Union exposed the limits of the socialist camp, and the Tiananmen Square Incident laid bare the grotesque nature of the Chinese Communist Party, which cannot survive without the thorough suppression of freedom and human rights.
Japan spent thirty years of tranquility under the era of overwhelming American dominance.
Natural disasters occurred frequently, but overall it was an age of prosperity and peace.
But this peace was not something Japan won for itself; it may fairly be said that it was realized through the protection of the United States.
In the Reiwa era, if Japan is to enjoy peace and prosperity as it has until now, extraordinary efforts will be required.
Is not the launching of a missile by North Korea at the opening of the Reiwa era itself a symbol of how pressing the situation at Japan’s feet is?
The U.S.-China confrontation that began with the trade war, while not making the possibility of a dramatic reconciliation absolutely zero, will probably deepen into a more full-fledged conflict.
It is a conflict of values, and will likely be a long struggle between countries that observe rules and countries that do not.
In that context, Japan has no choice but to side with the United States, yet that very United States is demanding Japan’s independence.
Rapid constitutional revision and the sure strengthening of Japan’s degree of independence as a nation are essential.
With the deepening of U.S.-China confrontation expected, there is no time to lose in responding to the crisis at hand.
As of June 2, four large vessels of the China Coast Guard had been intruding into the contiguous zone of the Senkaku Islands for 52 consecutive days.
A city council member of Ishigaki City in Okinawa Prefecture warns that the four vessels sail daily, twenty-four hours a day, in the contiguous zone around the Senkaku Islands, and frequently intrude into territorial waters, and that the entire nation must share awareness of that danger.
Chinese vessels have grown larger, and four in total, two in the 5,000-ton class and two in the 3,000-ton class, are positioned in the contiguous zone connected to territorial waters in a way that allows them to monitor Japanese vessels.
Their hulls are made of thick steel, and some are armed with 30-mm guns.
The China Coast Guard to which they belong was incorporated last July into the People’s Armed Police under China’s Central Military Commission.
The Chinese vessels watching Japan’s territory are military both in capability and in affiliation.
By contrast, the Japan Coast Guard’s ships are on the 1,500-ton scale, their hulls are made lighter in order to prioritize speed, and are therefore more fragile.
Their guns are 20-mm.
Even if morale on the scene is high, it is only natural to worry whether this can truly cope with the Chinese threat.
In addition, our country has what might well be called “Senkaku inaction” — the term used by Robert Eldridge, former deputy assistant chief of staff for political and government relations, U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa — that is, a fear of China.
This “Senkaku inaction” is most concentrated in Okinawa itself.
A fishing boat that had been operating around the Senkaku Islands was followed for more than an hour by a Chinese vessel on May 24 while returning to Ishigaki Island.
It managed to escape under the guard of Japan Coast Guard vessels on all sides, but Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki criticized the local fishermen, saying, “Chinese public vessels are on patrol. We must refrain from deliberately provoking them.”
This Tamaki Denny must not be Japanese but Chinese, I suppose.
The people of Iwate Prefecture, who chose Ichiro Ozawa, who had such a vulgar wretch under him, must be ashamed for generations to come, and the degree of treachery — or rather, the vulgarity of the men and women — of the people of Okinawa Prefecture, who made such a man, little better than a traitor, their governor, has reached an extreme.
It is China that is unlawfully provoking Japan, and Mr. Tamaki’s inversion of cause and effect is outrageous.
Japan’s “inaction” is the same with respect to Taiwan, which is directly linked to Japan’s security.
The situation in Taiwan is more severe than at any previous stage.
If, in next January’s presidential election in Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party, which is a Taiwanese party, is defeated by the Kuomintang, then it will be, “more than a change of government, a change of homeland from Taiwan to China.”
(Former ambassador to Japan, Hsu Shih-kai.)
At that point, President Xi Jinping will in effect move forward with the unification of China and Taiwan.
Not only the Senkakus, but Japan as a whole will fall into extraordinary difficulty.
The Korean Peninsula is also in crisis.
In 2005, China leased Rajin, North Korea’s northernmost port on the Sea of Japan side, for fifty years.
In 2012, it obtained thirty-year usage rights to the port of Chongjin, about 100 kilometers south of Rajin and one of the three major cities equipped with a transportation network connected to all of North Korea.
Jeju Island, close to Japan, is in a situation similar to Okinawa.
Massive Chinese money has been poured in, and land in various places has been purchased.
The movements of North and South Korea remain fluid, but the framework of Chinese domination over the Korean Peninsula is steadily being completed.
In other words, one may say that the building of bases to turn the Sea of Japan into a Chinese sea is advancing.
Looking at the circumstances surrounding Japan, both offensive and defensive capabilities must be strengthened.
That is why constitutional revision must be hurried.
And yet why does constitutional revision not advance?
At this juncture, an emergency in which international dynamics are undergoing great change because both the United States and China have transformed in character, why does politics not move?
The greatest responsibility lies with the Constitutional Democratic Party.
The reasoning of its leader Yukio Edano and the others is not reasoning at all.
Mr. Edano and the others will not even respond to deliberation, much less a vote, on the bill to revise the National Referendum Law.
They say that the commercials permitted under the National Referendum Law must be regulated even more strictly.
But the current National Referendum Law already bans commercials starting fourteen days before voting day.
Is that not sufficient?
Rather, precisely because Japan is a country that cannot be said to have sufficiently debated the Constitution, I believe it would be better to deliver as much discussion and information as possible to the voters.
What I wish to emphasize is that the bill to revise the National Referendum Law and regulation of commercials have nothing to do with one another.
The bill to revise the National Referendum Law is the same in content as the revision to the Public Offices Election Act passed three years ago, which made it possible to vote even at convenience stores and other such places so that voters could cast their ballots as easily as possible.
Moreover, was it not Mr. Edano and the others of the then Democratic Child who enacted this National Referendum Law?
Why do they now deny what they themselves once approved?
Opposition that has neither logic nor consistency is surely for the purpose of blocking constitutional revision.
If so, then it means they do not trust the people.
A national referendum on constitutional revision is an exercise of popular sovereignty.
Will Mr. Edano and the others not give the people the opportunity to exercise sovereignty?
Do they not trust the people?
Then what is democratic about them, and what is constitutional about them?
The Liberal Democratic Party also bears great responsibility.
In past elections, the Liberal Democratic Party pledged constitutional revision.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also repeatedly pledged constitutional revision.
Constitutional revision is, to begin with, the founding spirit of the Liberal Democratic Party.
It is because of that set of values that many of the people support the Liberal Democratic Party.
Rouse yourselves, achieve revision under the Abe Cabinet, and overcome the challenges of the Reiwa era.