On April 9, 2020, this article introduces a Sankei Shimbun column by Rui Abiru and criticizes some opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, and the Communist Party, for focusing on the cherry blossom viewing party and Moritomo Gakuen issues while the COVID-19 crisis was approaching. Through discussions of emergency clauses, constitutional revision, Renho’s remarks, and criticism by Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, it asks what politics should truly do to protect the lives and property of the people.

April 9, 2020
The irresponsible Constitutional Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, and the Communist Party, in January and February of this year, while the crisis of the novel coronavirus was approaching, were doing nothing but the cherry blossom viewing party and the Moritomo Gakuen issue.
The following is from Rui Abiru’s serialized column, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title, “Should Some Opposition Parties Refrain from Coming to the Diet?”
He is one of the finest active reporters.
As I have already written, his ancestors were the chiefs of the sakimori, who were charged with defending the land of ancient Japan from foreign enemies.
The spread of the novel coronavirus has made visible the fragility of Japan’s legal and social systems, beginning with a constitution that does not assume an emergency.
For the sake of protecting the lives and property of the people, I want the Diet to show the ruling and opposition parties cooperating as one, beyond their divisions.
Only then will politics win the trust of the people.
With such faint expectations, I have watched the state of the Diet for the past two months or so.
But it seems that expecting this from the current mainstream opposition parties is, after all, like going to a greengrocer in search of fish.
Criticism for the sake of criticism.
At the House of Representatives Rules and Administration Committee on the 7th, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe replied as follows to a question from Takashi Endo, Diet affairs chairman of the Japan Innovation Party, who said, “The current constitution did not anticipate a national crisis like this virus. The creation of emergency clauses through constitutional revision is indispensable.”
“How to position in the constitution what roles the state and the people should play in order to protect the safety of the people in an emergency is an extremely grave and important issue. While also taking into account the response to the novel coronavirus infection, I hope that active discussions beyond the framework of ruling and opposition parties will unfold in the Diet’s Commission on the Constitution.”
In response to the question he was asked, he stated something entirely natural about future issues.
Yet Renho, deputy leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, immediately bit into this on Twitter.
“The greatest objective now is every possible means toward ending the coronavirus infection. It is to protect the lives of the people. Why does no voice come from within the Liberal Democratic Party saying that a leader who speaks of expectations for constitutional revision debate is wrong?”
No matter how one reads it, it can only be seen as nitpicking.
There is no contradiction whatsoever between devoting full effort to the current issues, including this state of emergency declaration, and answering questions about the future by incorporating that experience as well.
Renho also criticized the Liberal Democratic Party’s secretary of the Commission on the Constitution on the 3rd, when he proposed to the Constitutional Democratic Party that a commission meeting be held on the theme of “securing Diet functions in an emergency.”
“I wanted to say, shut up. What should be done now is to specialize all Diet deliberations in coronavirus infection countermeasures and thoroughly hold ruling-opposition consultations. This is the time to do what we can for the people and for the world, isn’t it?”
Who was it, I wonder, who spent almost all of her allotted time pursuing the cherry blossom viewing party issue at the House of Councillors Budget Committee on January 29, immediately after the first group of Japanese nationals returned from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on a government-chartered plane?
When Prime Minister Abe asked all elementary, junior high, and high schools nationwide to close at the end of February, Renho asserted, “There is no such thing as this kind of outrageous leadership. It should be withdrawn immediately.”
Does she still think that the school closure request was wrong?
From the front line: “Be quiet.”
This time I have cited Renho’s words and actions as an example.
But not only her; much of the mainstream opposition’s criticism of the administration is emotional, reflexive, and done for the sake of criticism.
Just when I had become fed up and disgusted with it, Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, representative of Osaka Ishin no Kai, cut it down sharply from the standpoint of a local government leader on the front line.
“The irresponsible Constitutional Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, and the Communist Party, in January and February of this year, while the crisis of the novel coronavirus was approaching, were doing nothing but the cherry blossom viewing party and the Moritomo Gakuen issue. I want them, at any rate, to be quiet. Administration is in the practical world of supporting people who are suffering from the damage of coronavirus. Those who are putting on election-minded performances should shut themselves in and not come out.”
Many citizens must also feel this to be true.
The mainstream opposition parties enjoyed a 17-day holiday the year before last by refusing to engage in Diet deliberations.
This year, they would do well to refrain from coming to the Diet.
Editorial writer and political department editorial committee member.