DPJ to resurrect constitutional research panel after July poll

Jun 23 09:44 AM US/Eastern

TOKYO, June 23 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Yukio Edano, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said Wednesday that the party's policy panel on the Constitution, which was abolished in 2007 after the enactment of a controversial law on constitutional changes, will be resurrected after the July 11 House of Councillors election.

Edano said at a news conference that before tackling constitutional matters, the party will work on mending the ties between the ruling and opposition forces that frayed after the then ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito party, railroaded through the referendum law.

On the absence of a reference to constitutional amendments in the DPJ's campaign platform for the upcoming election, Edano stressed that no agreement can be reached if parties assert themselves on constitutional matters.

"There needs to be a common ground for each party to listen to people's voices with an open mind," Edano said.

Parliamentary debate on constitutional changes fizzled after 2007, when then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP-led coalition rammed through a measure stipulating procedures for constitutional amendments, pitting the opposition strongly against it.

Though deliberative councils on the Constitution were established at both houses of parliament in August the same year, their meetings have never been held due to opposition from the then main opposition DPJ and other parties. The DPJ abolished its research commission on the Constitution after an upper house election that year.

A supplementary provision in the referendum law called for lowering the age for adulthood and suffrage from 20 to 18 before the law entered into force last month, but such a change has yet to be made.

Also Wednesday, Edano said that while he seeks to obtain an agreement from a wide range of parties on possible cuts in the number of Diet members, he intends to work on the matter in such a way that would allow the DPJ to draw a conclusion as soon as possible.