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by shin-yamakami16

東京新宿「集団的自衛権・抗議」焼身自殺 – BBC ニュース

東京新宿「集団的自衛権・抗議」焼身自殺 – BBC ニュース_f0166919_11391088.jpg




日本で稀に見る「政治的示威」行動

                              山上 真

昨日29日、新宿で安倍政権が強行する「集団的自衛権」決定に反対して男性が「焼身自殺」を図った事件について、海外メディアは次の様に伝えている。

 英国『ガーディアン』紙

「日本人男性は明らかに日本政府に抗議して自身に火を点けたーヴィデオ・レポート」

「東京の男性は、日本首相によって為された変更に明確に反対して、日曜日の混雑する交差点で自らに火を点けた」

「アベ・シンゾーは平和憲法に終止符を打つことによって、日本の防衛政策を変えつつある。目撃者たちは、その男性が焼身自殺する前に、このことに抗議していたと言っている。彼は今入院中である」

The Guardian
Japanese man sets himself on fire in apparent anti-government protest - video report

A man in Tokyo set himself alight at a busy intersection on Sunday in an apparent protest against changes made by the Japanese prime minister. Shinzo Abe is shifting the country's defence policy by ending the pacifist constitution. Witnesses say the man was protesting against this before he self-immolated. He is currently in hospital.


東京新宿「集団的自衛権・抗議」焼身自殺 – BBC ニュース_f0166919_11394759.jpg


The Independent

Japan's pacifist constitution: After 70 years, nation changes the rules so it can go to war
ー「日本平和憲法:70年を経て、国家は戦争に参加すべく決まりを変える」

東京新宿「集団的自衛権・抗議」焼身自殺 – BBC ニュース_f0166919_1421821.jpg


The country will now be able to engage in collective self-defence and come to the aid of a military ally who is under attack, but the move has proved to be bitterly divisive

David McNeill

Tuesday, 1 July 2014
Japan’s coalition government has approved a controversial reinterpretation of the nation’s pacifist constitution that will let its troops fight overseas for the first time since the Second World War.


The decision means that Japan will be able to engage in collective self-defence and come to the aid of a military ally under attack – principally the United States. The Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, says the new strategy, widely viewed as the biggest change to Japan’s defence posture in nearly 70 years, is needed to deal with growing threats in the Asia-Pacific region.

“The global situation surrounding Japan is becoming ever more difficult,” Mr Abe said in a televised press conference. “Being fully prepared is effective in discouraging any attempt to wage a war on Japan. The cabinet decision today will further lessen the chance of Japan being engaged in war. That is my conviction.”

The move is backed by the US, Japan’s main military ally, but it has been bitterly divisive in a country where pacifism is deeply embedded. Polls show that most Japanese oppose the reinterpretation. Thousands of demonstrators have been outside the Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo since Monday, chanting anti-war slogans.

On Sunday, a man set himself alight outside Tokyo’s busiest train station in apparent protest. “Abe is ignoring public opinion and our constitution because he wants a bigger military,” said Yumiko Fujiwara. “I can’t forgive him.”

The cabinet decision has also angered Beijing. A stinging editorial in the Xinhua English website said Mr Abe is “leading his country down a dangerous path” by “gutting the constitution”. The editorial said: “No matter how Abe glosses over it, he is dallying with the spectre of war through a cheap scam.”

Mr Abe spent months negotiating the change with his government’s coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito, which pledged to protect the constitution. The reinterpretation is a compromise between the pacifism of New Komeito and the more hawkish line taken by Mr Abe’s Liberal Democrats (LDP).

A draft cabinet resolution said Japan would be able to come to the aid of an ally in limited circumstances, such as if an attack posed “an imminent threat to Japan’s survival” or the lives and rights of its people. It said the right to “minimum force” would be exercised if other means to eliminate that threat have failed. Mr Abe says such rights are needed to allow Japan to become a “proactive” contributor to world peace.

Months of cabinet discussions have revealed deep divisions on the scope of interpretation for military actions allowed under the law. Mr Abe wants Japan to join mine-sweeping operations through sea lanes in the Middle East, through which most of the oil destined for Japan passes, but New Komeito argued that clearing mines during war went far beyond self-defence.

Critics say the new guidelines have been left deliberately vague to allow the government more room to decide military engagements.

“They’re only the opening step in future plans to send Japanese soldiers abroad,” said Hiroyuki Konishi, an opposition lawmaker who opposed the changes. The constitution was written in 1946 during the American occupation of Japan.

The Guardian

Japanese pacifists unnerved by lifting of ban on military intervention
Defence policy move by conservative PM Shinzo Abe raises fears young Japanese will again be sent to fight overseas
ー「日本の平和主義者たちは軍事介入禁止を解除することに脅威を受けている」ー「保守・アベシンゾー首相の防衛政策変更の動きは日本の若年層に再び海外で戦う為に送られるという恐れを呼び起こしている」

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
theguardian.com, Tuesday 1 July 2014 14.01 BST

東京新宿「集団的自衛権・抗議」焼身自殺 – BBC ニュース_f0166919_7312711.jpg


Protesters outside the prime minister's residence in Tokyo. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images
When Takeshi Ishida was drafted into the Japanese military in 1943, he believed that he was fighting a just war to liberate Asia from western colonialism. It was only after taking part in daily exercises in which he was trained to kill that Ishida began to question Japanese militarism.

When the full horror of Japanese atrocities became apparent in the aftermath of its surrender, Ishida devoted himself to defending the pacifist constitution, imposed by victorious US occupation authorities. Now, the former imperial army officer is consumed with fear that young Japanese will again be sent to fight overseas, following the most dramatic shift in the country's defence policy for almost 70 years.

On Tuesday, the conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his cabinet agreed to lift the longstanding ban on Japan's troops engaging in combat overseas, a move Ishida believes could once again drag his county into a reckless war.

"What Abe is doing is destroying the principles of our pacifist constitution," Ishida, a professor emeritus at Tokyo University, told the Guardian. "Not killing anyone abroad is, in a sense, a precious part of our heritage. Why should we have to throw it away on the orders of one man rather than through the will of the people?"

Ishida, 91, believes Japan's US-authored constitution is at the heart of its postwar peace. "I came to realise that I had been indoctrinated to become a militaristic youth," he said. "As someone who felt for a while that he had lost his identity, the peace constitution was a great encouragement."

That tradition of pacifism is in danger of being abandoned as Abe moves to reinterpret the constitution and lift the self-imposed ban on collective defence, or coming to the aid of an ally under attack.

Japan will not attempt to revise its constitution outright – an option Abe apparently abandoned after accepting he would not win the necessary majorities in parliament and in a nationwide referendum – but will reinterpret the "pacifist" article 9, which prohibits the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.

The change, which is expected to be approved by parliament – where Abe's Liberal Democratic party and its junior coalition partner hold majorities – would allow Japan to exercise collective self-defence for the first time since the end of the second world war.

In practical terms, armed troops could take part in UN peacekeeping operations or be dispatched to "grey zone" emergencies that have not developed into full-blown conflict. Most troubling of all, say critics, the military could come to the aid of an ally, leaving open the possibility that Japan could be dragged into war at Washington's behest.

Abe has made building a better-equipped, more robust military a cornerstone of his second term as prime minister. As a prominent figure among conservative politicians who want to change the country's view of its wartime record, he says the current constitution compromises Japan's ability to defend itself and its allies amid Chinese military aggression and North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

In a televised address on Tuesday, Abe said Japan would remain a pacifist state and denied that the new policy would mean sending troops into combat zones. Instead, he said it would offer better protection to the Japanese people. The country's navy, for example, would be able to help protect US warships that were fighting to defend Japan, he said.

"This is for the happiness of the Japanese people," Abe said. "Japan's status as a peaceful country will not change."

According to a cabinet document on the change, Japan would only take action if "a country's existence is threatened, and there are clear dangers that the people's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would be overturned" by an armed attack on Japan or on "countries with close ties".

But neighbouring countries that were victims of Japanese militarism in the first half of the 20th century have warned Tokyo against abandoning its pacifist principles. "Beijing opposes Japan's act of hyping the China threat," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters in Beijing. "It's only natural for us to wonder if Japan is going to leave the path of peaceful development that it has long been pursuing."

In Seoul, the foreign ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said: "Our position is that the discussions should be held on the basis of the pacifist constitution, dispelling concerns among neighbouring countries stemming from history, and into a direction of contributing to peace and stability in the region."

Abe's push to remove constitutional restraints on the military has also attracted opposition in Japan. An estimated 10,000 people demonstrated outside his official residence on Monday evening, and similar protests were held on Tuesday.

"The current constitution is the result of the sacrifice of more than three million Japanese and more than 20 million Asian victims of war," said Yoshihiko Murata, a 74-year-old protester. "We should value it more." Several recent opinion polls show most voters oppose the lifting of the ban on collective self-defence.

Supporters of the change said Japan is simply adopting the same defence policy as other liberal democracies at a time of increasing uncertainty in the Asia-Pacific. "What we are trying to do now is to play a more proactive role in cooperating with regional countries in setting up a framework to protect the peace and stability of the region," Takeshi Iwaya, who heads the LDP's security research commission, told AP.

Ishida said the effective removal of the last significant constraint on Japan's military had come at a dangerous time for the region, citing Abe's visit to Yasukuni shrine as part of an attempt to foment tension with China and South Korea.

Japan's rightward shift under Abe, including the recent passage of a state secrets law, has rekindled uncomfortable memories for a man drafted to fight in a war he now believes was tragically misguided.

"The state secrets law immediately reminded me of the peace preservation law in 1928, which made it much easier to arrest people and suppress information," Ishida said. "Now we have this new interpretation of article 9 of the constitution that would allow Japanese forces to fight overseas. I am worried that history is repeating itself."


BBC ASIA
29 June 2014 Last updated at 11:44
Japanese man sets self on fire over military rule changeー「日本の男性が軍事政策の改変について焼身自殺を図った」

A man set himself on fire in central Tokyo in protest at a proposed law which could allow Japan to deploy its military overseas.
The man was taken to hospital after being hosed down but his condition was not immediately known, officials said.
Japan's government could make the change to its pacifist constitution as early as next Tuesday.
The US-drafted constitution bans war and "the threat or use of force" to settle international disputes.
Witnesses said the middle-aged man, wearing a suit and tie, climbed onto a pedestrian bridge at Tokyo's Shinjuku station.
"He was sitting cross-legged and was just talking, so I thought it would end without incident," one eyewitness told Reuters. "Then all of a sudden his body was enveloped in fire."
Reports said the man used a megaphone to shout for over an hour about the change to Japan's constitution.
Video shown on national television in Japan showed the flames being extinguished by officers.
'Double standard'
Japan has well-equipped and well-trained armed forces but there are severe restrictions on them being deployed abroad.
Under Article 9 of its post-war pacifist constitution, Japan is blocked from the use of force to resolve conflicts except in the case of self-defence.
But Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants a new interpretation of the constitution to be agreed on.
The move has split opinion inside the country. Critics of the move warn against what they see as increasing militarism, while conservatives argue that the restriction is a double standard forced upon Japan.
Mr Abe's plan has led to criticism from China, whose relations with the Japan have become strained over territorial disputes in East China Sea.
Correspondents say the move will likely please the US, with whom Japan has a long-standing security treaty.

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 各種世論調査で国民の過半数が「集団的自衛権」行使に反対しており、「戦争に関わる恐れ」を7割以上が感じているにも拘らず、安倍政権は強行しようとしているが、まあ、見ているがいい。例えば、近い将来イラクなど中近東に派遣された自衛隊員が戦闘の果てに亡くなったり、相手側を殺して、国内外の問題となった時から、「政治変革」の必要を、やっとのことで国民・政治家が自覚することになるのも、これだけ「愚かな政治」が蔓延っている今となっては,仕方あるまい。

                          (2014.06.30)

<写真> BBC World
by shin-yamakami16 | 2014-06-30 11:41