'3 nations should block Japan'

By Jun Ji-hye

South Korea needs to strengthen cooperation with the United States and China to tackle Japan’s move to revise its pacifist constitution and other attempts to turn to the political right, experts and scholars said Tuesday.

Rep. Nam Kyung-pil of the ruling Saenuri Party presided over an open forum to come up with measures against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s move for the constitutional revision. The move is apparently designed to give the Japanese military a larger role, probably including the right of collective self-defense.

This means the right to engage in military activities overseas if one’s allies are under attack. Abe stated that enabling this through a constitutional revision is one of his representative election pledges, upsetting neighboring nations such as China and Korea.

Rep. Nam chairs the National Assembly Special Committee to straighten historical disagreements in Northeast Asia.

“Probably not immediately, but soon, the Abe government is likely to launch preparatory works to revise the country’s pacifist constitution and push for a national referendum. This will obviously change Japan’s postwar politics and its system,” said Lee Myung-chan, a researcher of the Northeast Asian History Foundation.

Lee said the Seoul government needs to reexamine Seoul-Tokyo relations from the bottom up.

“Seoul should set up stable relations with neighboring countries including Washington and Beijing to properly counter Japan’s conservative swing which denies reflecting on its past militarism,” said Lee. “The South needs to improve inter-Korean relations on top of the solid national security as well.”

Rep. Nam, the host of the forum, said, Seoul needs to cooperate with other countries victimized during World War II.

“New paradigms, for example, cooperation between Korea, the U.S. and China, need to be actively considered,” said Nam.

Sohn Yeol, professor of international studies at Yonsei University, pointed out that Abe’s attempt to revise the constitution is “symbolic behavior showing his refusal to admit Japan’s past wrongdoings during its war of aggression.”

“Korea needs to clearly deliver its message that such a move by Abe will negatively affect Seoul-Washington-Tokyo’s security cooperation,” said Sohn.

The revision requires two-thirds approval by the upper and lower houses to push for a national referendum.

Abe’s ruling coalition achieved majority victory in the parliamentary upper house elections on July 21, gaining a combined 135 out of 242 seats. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner New Komeito together also control two-thirds of the seats at the lower house.

The recent survey, jointly conducted by Asahi Shimbun and the University of Tokyo, showed that about 75 percent lawmakers are in favor of revision. The number exceeds two-thirds approval (66.7 percent).

The Japanese prime minister recently tried to stress the need for his country to have a constitutional revision during meetings with leaders of Southeast Asian countries.

When he met Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Friday, Abe was quoted by Sankei Shimbun as saying: “When Singapore is in danger of enemy’s attack, Japan is not able to help without the right of collective self-defense.”

Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso joined hands with Abe by saying, “Japan needs to learn how to revise constitution from the Nazis that changed the Weimar Constitution before nobody realized it.”

Kyodo News Service reported Aso made comments Monday during his lecture in a private research group in Tokyo.

“The purpose of the revision is to protect national stability. The task definitely needs to be achieved, but we do not want to make a decision when there are many aloud protests,” he said.