Commissions on the Constitution: It’s Time to Begin Drafting Specific Articles

Editorial

14:16 JST, December 5, 2025

It is praiseworthy that commissions on the Constitution of both houses of the Diet have for many years engaged in “free debate” to openly and frankly discuss what the nation’s supreme law should be like.

However, unless these discussions arrive at conclusions, the commissions cannot fulfill their role of formulating a proposal for constitutional amendments. It can be said that it is time for them to begin drafting specific articles.

The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party have proposed establishing a subcommittee within the House of Representatives’ Commission on the Constitution to draft articles. However, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and other opposition parties opposed this and no agreement has been reached.

The CDPJ argues that the priority is to achieve broader consensus on what should be included in draft articles by continuing free debate going forward.

What is the point of focusing on which to prioritize, deliberations at the commission itself or discussions at the drafting subcommittee? It seems that the CDPJ is simply wary of constitutional revision discussions moving forward.

The LDP lost a significant number of seats in both the lower house and the House of Councillors elections, leaving it far from securing the two-thirds majority in both chambers required to initiate constitutional revision by the Diet. It must be said that the momentum for constitutional revision in the Diet is waning.

Nevertheless, there is an extraordinary gap between real society and the Constitution, which was enacted nearly 80 years ago and has never been amended. Areas where consensus can be reached across party lines should be identified.

The ruling parties’ top priority is to create an emergency clause. This is a provision to extend lawmakers’ terms and postpone election dates when elections cannot be held due to natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks or armed attacks, among other events. The aim is to prevent the Diet from becoming dysfunctional.

After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, a special measures law was enacted to postpone elections in affected municipalities. However, Diet members’ terms are explicitly stipulated in the Constitution, making constitutional revision indispensable for any extension.

Even though an emergency session at the upper house can be convened in times of emergency, it is necessary to avoid prolonged absences by lower house lawmakers. Establishing an emergency clause is a critical issue.

In addition, regarding Article 9 of the Constitution, the LDP advocates for explicitly stipulating the existence of the Self-Defense Forces in the Constitution, while the JIP proposes deleting a provision that prohibits the possession of any war potential, among other items. As the security environment becomes increasingly severe, discussions must be deepened to dispel arguments about the unconstitutionality of the SDF and to explicitly stipulate its existence in the Constitution.

In the current Diet session, one of the points of discussion is how to handle information of unknown veracity on social media.

It has already been pointed out that false information has undermined the fairness of various elections. This is an era in which it has become necessary to have in-depth discussions on new topics that the Constitution did not anticipate, such as the development of digital technology.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 5, 2025)