http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/02/uk-japan-politics-constitution-idUKBRE94101E20130502?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Kind of scary if you think about it. Part of me still isn't understanding why exactly Abe and the LDP won so big to get themselves in the position where they may be able to pass some or all of this stuff if they can press their gains in July Upper House elections.

In short, they want to potentially remove the importance in the constitution placed upon guaranteed freedoms that were installed in 1947, and replace it with "duties" upon the citizens, and empower the (recreated) military to uphold social order.

Really makes a nasty callback to the worse aspects of the Meiji Constitution.

Too be honest they really need to revive their Military for their own protection. Both North Korea and China could be a threat in the future if United States decide to withdraw their Military from Asia. Plus all these smaller Asian countries can't rely on the United States protection forever. Everyone hate the United States for being the global police but they can't defend themselves without us.

Usually it's the U.S prohibiting military expansion.

South Korea can't make any nuclear defenses because of U.S. not wanting them to. America is there for a reason other than global police force.

"The LDP draft would negate the basic concept of universal human rights, which Japanese conservatives argue is a Western notion ill-suited to Japan's traditional culture and values."

:/

It's true that people don't seem to value individual rights as highly as we do in the West. And seeing how compliant the press is this will probably pass without much of a fuzz.

Isn't Japan like really scared of Western individualism flowing in?

I mean I can understand why they would be but just curious.

I wouldn't say that scares them, I've never noticed that sentiment. Never specifically mentioning Western culture, it's not like they're too exposed to it anyway.

But Japanese people value safety and order highly. Too highly in my opinion. You can see this even in small details like how many warnings and signs there are everywhere, about things you'd expect people to figure out by themselves. From elevators not shutting the fuck up to detailed instructions in the toilet about how to flush and how to change a roll.

Or not so small things like people wearing masks all the time or speakers in towns telling kids to go home at 5pm because it's "dangerous" to stay outside.

Sounds like another sensationalist article reading between the lines and distorting words. There are a lot of assumptions in the article.

By the way, any change to the Japanese constitution has to be approved by the US government. "Journalists" better get ready to point the finger at someone else, because a certain administration in office now has been very supportive of allowing this revision to happen.

I mean, i've been there, and i still don't quite understand it. I think it's largely because the average Japanese is very politically apathetic, and the left-wing units in Japan have always been incredibly poorly organized, so a lot of the national agenda is thrust around by certified lunatics like Tokyo Governor Ishihara. The country is already westernized to an extent, but the way in which that has taken root is more in the matter of how the young people live their lives (where young people don't settle down, don't marry, don't have kids, the big problems in Japanese society, ironically), and not in how their politics works. Aside from the Ultra-Nationalists and their causes, the only thing anyone seems to get fired up about is nuclear weapons.

What Japan really needs is a new feminist revolution. From what i've read about their culture, the big problem (the lack of babies!) is due to far greater cultural pressures against working mothers, and that their family legal system gives incredible advantages to the man, so for women to remain independent or career-track in Japan now, it's much easier to either avoid marriage or, if married, avoid kids.

When their debt situation truly goes out of control sometime in the next 20 years (and it basically has to, what's propping it up is high savings rates and bond investment. When those investors retire in waves and start collecting... ouch), there will be an opportunity for large social adjustment, and then we could see the much more sensible average Japanese person awaken and become politically active again, finally marginalizing the right-wingnuts.

Article 9, yes. It's time for countries under the American security umbrella to start standing on their own two feet, especially wealthy (if debt-ridden) ones like Europe and Japan

Abrogation of human rights? Hell no.

What a biased article. There were no arguments presented in favor of changing the constitution. I'm sure the Japanese conservatives have some good arguments for it, right? I assume there are.

Whenever I see the words "human rights" I get an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. It shouldn't be so. In the West, "human rights" has become a tool for the left to disrupt the current order in society that they hate. "Human rights" is used as an argument for distribution of wealth, free immigration, rewarding criminals and restricting freedom of speech.

I love Japan. Japan should once and for all remove the yoke that was put on them by USA and become a truly independent nation again.