Debate sought over Japan security bills

Nagasaki mayor warns that nation's support of postwar Constitution's 'peaceful ideology' is weak

The mayor of Nagasaki urged Japanese leaders on Sunday to dispel the public's concerns over proposed government-backed national security bills by conducting "careful and sincere deliberations".

Speaking in the city at the 70th anniversary of the US atomic bombing there, Tomihisa Taue warned that the pacifist nature of the Japanese war-renouncing Constitution is "wavering", referring to the controversial bills that, if enacted, would allow Japan to engage in armed conflicts overseas for the first time since the end of World War II.

"There is widespread unease and concerns that the (peaceful) oath that was engraved onto our hearts 70 years ago and the peaceful ideology of the Japanese Constitution are wavering," said the mayor, urging the government and the Diet, Japan's parliament, to listen to the voices of unease and concerns.

The security legislation, which is being pushed by the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is considered by over 90 percent of Japanese constitutional experts to be unconstitutional since the Japanese supreme law bans the country from engaging in combat abroad.

Recent polls also showed that the majority of Japanese people are opposed to the bills. Support for Abe's Cabinet dived about 10 percentage points in July, immediately after the ruling bloc rammed the bills through the Diet's lower house.

Meanwhile, the mayor emphasized that the peaceful path Japan has pursued in the past 70 years should never be changed for Nagasaki's sake.

He also asked Japan's young generation not to push aside wartime experiences told by the older generation, saying what the elders experienced could happen to the Japanese again.

Abe didn't mention the security bills in his speech, saying only that Japan will make efforts to reach its goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.