[앵커]
As you can see, Prime Minister Kishida, who won the election big, promised to push ahead with constitutional amendment as soon as possible.
Let’s find out more about whether Japan’s right-wing painting is getting darker by connecting to Tokyo.
Correspondent Park Won-ki, first of all, do you think that now is the right time for the LDP to push for constitutional amendment?
[기자]
Yes, in this election, the LDP pledged to implement the constitutional amendment early in the direction of specifying the Self-Defense Forces in the constitution.
A constitutional amendment can only be proposed when two-thirds or more of the House of Representatives and the House of Representatives both approve, but the basic conditions have been established.
Also, unlike before, the recent issues of Russia, China, and North Korea have increased security insecurity in Japan.
The sudden death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to have contributed to the judgment that the atmosphere for constitutional amendment has reached its peak.
[기시다 후미오/일본 총리 : “아베 신조 전 총리의 뜻을 이어받아, (특히 아베 전 총리가 열정을 쏟아온) 헌법 개정 등 (아베) 자신의 손으로 이루지 못한 난제를 풀어가겠습니다.”]
[앵커]
Constitutional amendment is what former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called a ‘lifetime task’. Can the Prime Minister be able to live up to that dream?
[기자]
Yes, it is.
Japan is officially a country without an army.
This is because Article 9 of the Constitution, which is called the Peace Constitution after the war, stipulates that the military is not allowed.
Former Prime Minister Abe has shown strong will to put an end to the controversy over the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces by stipulating the existence of the Self-Defense Forces in the Constitution, both during his tenure as prime minister and after his resignation.
It was my dream to make Japan a ‘normal country’ capable of war through constitutional amendment, but it was never realized.
[아베 신조/2020년 8월 퇴임 기자회견 : “개헌을 이루지 못한채 (총리를) 그만 두게 돼 장이 끊어지는 것 같습니다.”]
[앵커]
Did China immediately check Japan’s move?
[기자]
Yes, ‘I hope you take the lessons of history seriously’.
This is the comment made today by a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
Japan’s constitutional amendment issue is receiving a high degree of attention from the international community and its Asian neighbors, he said.
It emphasized that Japan should not forget its past, which took many lives during the colonial rule of Joseon and the Pacific War.
Such opposition from neighboring countries still persists, and there is also a prospect that the constitutional amendment promotion will not be as smooth as expected because there are differences of opinion over the timing, content, and direction even within Japan’s constitutional reform forces.
So far, it has been delivered from Tokyo.
Video Editing: High Application/Graphic: Lee Geun-hee/Research: Ahn So-hyun
