Published on September 12, 2019.
Triggered by remarks by former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani regarding the stalled deliberations on the National Referendum Act amendment bill, this article criticizes the Diet tactics of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Kiyomi Tsujimoto.
Through the Moritomo-Kake issues, the sexual harassment issue, boycott of Diet deliberations, the collapse of the Democratic Party, and the CDP’s “struggle tactics,” it discusses the problem of opposition politics that prioritizes political obstruction over policy debate.

September 12, 2019.
“The person stopping it is Kiyomi Tsujimoto, Diet Affairs Committee Chair of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Even an entirely ordinary bill pursuing convenience for voters is being held up in the Diet.”
This is a chapter I published on February 16, 2019, under the title: Opposition lawmakers who do nothing but drag things down are all harm and no benefit, and it is the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, an “extreme-left party alongside the Japanese Communist Party,” that should be excluded from the Diet.
The following is from an extremely useful article that I discovered on the Internet just now.
https://shinjukuacc.com/20180702-03/
Afternoon Edition: Do Not Allow Kiyomi Tsujimoto’s Obstruction Strategy.
Published: July 2, 2018, 11:45.
Last updated: July 2, 2018, 11:48.
Is Representative Kiyomi Tsujimoto the true culprit behind the “armed struggle line” that is stagnating national politics?
1 The Opposition Parties That Learn Nothing.
1.1 Former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani Criticizes Kiyomi Tsujimoto.
1.2 Morikake, Sexual Harassment, and Boycotting Deliberations.
1.3 The Self-Collapse of the Democratic Party and the CDP That Learns Nothing.
2 The CDP Is the One That Should Be Excluded.
The Opposition Parties That Learn Nothing.
Former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani Criticizes Kiyomi Tsujimoto.
Regarding domestic politics, there was a very concerning report at the end of last week.
Nakatani of the LDP Criticizes Tsujimoto over the Commission on the Constitution.
Jiji Press, June 30, 2018, 18:20.
According to Jiji Press, on Saturday the 30th, Gen Nakatani, former defense minister of the Liberal Democratic Party, gave a speech in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture.
Regarding the fact that deliberations had stopped on the “National Referendum Act amendment bill” related to constitutional revision and other matters, which had been submitted by the ruling parties and others, he reportedly made the following statement.
“The person stopping it is Kiyomi Tsujimoto, Diet Affairs Committee Chair of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Even an entirely ordinary bill pursuing convenience for voters is being held up in the Diet.”
As far as I remember, it is unusual for a sitting LDP Diet member to name and criticize the Diet Affairs Committee chair of another party, and it is also unusual for Jiji Press, which forms one corner of the mass media, to report this.
Although this website usually severely criticizes the reporting attitude of the mass media, I would like to say of an excellent article that it is excellent.
That said, because it is a short article, the full contents of Nakatani’s remarks are not reported, nor do we know with what intention Nakatani made this statement.
If I may say this purely by my own “reading between the lines,” perhaps exasperation with the attitude of the Constitutional Democratic Party is spreading among Diet members.
Morikake, Sexual Harassment, and Boycotting Deliberations.
When one thinks about it, the current “largest opposition party” is the Constitutional Democratic Party in the House of Representatives and the Democratic Party for the People in the House of Councillors.
There have been cases in which a “twist between ruling and opposition parties” occurred between the two chambers, but is it not rare for “the largest opposition party to be twisted between the two chambers”?
However, both the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Democratic Party for the People mainly originated from the Democratic Party of Japan, or the Democratic Party.
To put it bluntly, the “left wing of the Democratic Party” became the Constitutional Democratic Party, and the “right wing of the Democratic Party” became the Democratic Party for the People.
The common point, perhaps, is that both parties are treasure houses not of “human resources” but of “human liabilities.”
Even so, during the era of the Democratic Party, there were still some lawmakers, though not many, who maintained something like pride as a party and thought that they should not do nothing but extreme fault-finding, and should respond to proper policy debate.
However, the Constitutional Democratic Party, which is now the largest opposition party in the House of Representatives, has clearly inherited the bad DNA of the old Socialist Party of long ago.
That is, “dragging down national politics endlessly over matters that do not matter,” and this might be paraphrased as “struggle tactics.”
The “Morikake issue” refers to the suspicion that Shinzo Abe, as prime minister, abused his position to provide illegal favors to private schools run by his friends.
However, although the Asahi Shimbun, the Constitutional Democratic Party, and others have made a huge fuss about it for a year and a half, not a single conclusive piece of evidence has yet emerged showing that Prime Minister Abe committed a crime.
Also, the “sexual harassment issue” refers to the issue in which Junichi Fukuda, administrative vice minister of the Ministry of Finance, who resigned at his own request at the end of April, was alleged to have sexually harassed a female reporter from TV Asahi.
Even though no conclusive evidence has emerged on this issue either, the opposition side demanded the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso.
When their demand was not accepted, opposition lawmakers then took twenty consecutive days off of their own accord around Golden Week under the name of “boycotting deliberations,” and these opposition lawmakers earned the honorable title of “enemies of the people” on the Internet.
The Self-Collapse of the Democratic Party and the CDP That Learns Nothing.
However, when I look at the movement of this Constitutional Democratic Party, the first thing that comes to mind is the self-collapse of the Democratic Party.
Looking back now, in opinion polls conducted around July of last year, support for the Abe administration had reached its lowest level ever.
Of course, the influence of the “Morikake issue” was large, but in addition to this, it cannot be ignored that Tomomi Inada, then minister of defense, became the target of attacks by the mass media.
However, what was the situation of the Democratic Party, which was the largest opposition party at that time?
Did it seize the timing of the sharp drop in support for the Abe administration and have momentum to aim for the largest party in a general election?
In fact, even then, support for the Democratic Party was at a historic low.
The reason, above all, was that scandals followed one after another, such as the “dual nationality issue” of Democratic Party leader Renho Murata, Chinese name Xie Lianfang, and Representative Shiori Yamao’s gasoline issue and affair issue.
Indeed, in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election of July 2017, the LDP certainly suffered a crushing defeat, but it was not the Democratic Party that advanced in place of the LDP; it was Tomin First no Kai, led by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.
In a sense, Governor Koike became the “eye of the typhoon.”
There were rumors that Governor Koike might go on to create a new national party and achieve a change of government, but as soon as the dissolution and general election were decided in September of last year, leader Seiji Maehara decided that “the Democratic Party will not field candidates in the House of Representatives election.”
The Democratic Party self-collapsed.
However, although the Democratic Party tried to merge wholesale into the Party of Hope led by Koike, the left wing of the Democratic Party was excluded by the “logic of exclusion.”
And it was those “excluded people” who created the Constitutional Democratic Party, while people further excluded from there formed the “Group of Independents” after the House of Representatives election.
Thus, the Democratic Party truly split into pieces.
However, in the first place, why did the Democratic Party split into pieces?
It was because it adopted a strategy of simply stagnating Diet deliberations without any policy debate, and because this was strongly disliked by ordinary citizens.
When I look at the current Constitutional Democratic Party, I cannot help thinking that these people truly learn nothing.
The CDP Is the One That Should Be Excluded.
By the way, although it is a somewhat old article, Representative Tsujimoto made an interesting statement.
Tsujimoto Says She Will Create a Twisted Diet in the House of Councillors Election.
Jiji Press, June 9, 2018, 18:18.
Representative Tsujimoto’s “armed struggle line” seems to be thorough, and according to Jiji Press, at a political fundraising party held in Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture, in early last month, Representative Tsujimoto reportedly made the following statement.
“In the next House of Councillors election, I want to unite the strength of the opposition parties and throw it against the ruling parties, creating a twisted Diet in which the ruling and opposition parties are reversed in the two chambers.”
In short, this is not the “realization of a change of government,” but the creation of a “twisted Diet.”
Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture, is Representative Kiyomi Tsujimoto’s base, and it is also the local area where a block wall collapsed and a girl died in the Northern Osaka Earthquake on the 18th of last month.
In a sense, some have pointed out that various problems may be hidden in the municipal government of Takatsuki City, but perhaps one can only say that this is indeed Representative Tsujimoto’s home ground.
Of course, what is actually occurring is not a “twist between ruling and opposition parties in both houses.”
It is a “twist between the largest opposition parties in both houses.”
The reason it is twisted is probably that many lawmakers from the former Democratic Party are trying to belong not to the Constitutional Democratic Party, which upholds the “armed struggle line,” but to the Democratic Party for the People, which is “still better.”
In any case, the Diet is originally not a place for fault-finding.
It is a place for sound debate.
Opposition lawmakers who do nothing but drag things down are all harm and no benefit, and I think it is the Constitutional Democratic Party, an “extreme-left party alongside the Japanese Communist Party,” that should be excluded from the Diet.
Of course, there is no doubt that opposition parties such as the Democratic Party for the People also have various problems.
However, even if there is no dissolution of the House of Representatives, a regular election for the House of Councillors will be held next summer.
By that time, I hope that the Internet will spread even further and that the danger of the Constitutional Democratic Party will penetrate among the people.