![\"\"](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/4\/45\/Meiji_Kenpo04.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Asahi Shinbun<\/a> reports that the LDP has accepted plans to push for changing the name “Self-Defense Force”(\u300c\u81ea\u885b\u968a\u300d) to “Self-Defense Military” (\u300c\u81ea\u885b\u8ecd\u300d). This is a bit alarming and I am sure that, if not already, there will be harsh criticism from Japan’s neighbors in the coming days. <\/p>\n But what made me shiver in reading this news was not so much Japan inching toward militarization, which had already been happening for a while now, but rather an effort by the LDP to (re)instate the emperor as the “sovereign” of the Japanese state. According to this Asahi article in Japanese<\/a>, the commision almost approved a proposal to transform him into a mere symbolic figure to someone who would actually represent Japan in diplomatic settings. <\/p>\n \u81ea\u6c11\u515a\u65b0\u61b2\u6cd5\u8d77\u8349\u59d4\u54e1\u4f1a\uff08\u59d4\u54e1\u9577\u30fb\u68ee\u524d\u9996\u76f8\uff09\u306f\uff17\u65e5\u3001\u6539\u61b2\u306e\u300c\u8981\u7db1\u6848\u300d\u3092\u767a\u8868\u3057\u305f\u3002\uff19\u6761\uff12\u9805\u3092\u6539\u6b63\u3057\u3001\u81ea\u885b\u306e\u305f\u3081\u306e\u6b66\u529b\u7d44\u7e54\u3092\u300c\u81ea\u885b\u8ecd\u300d\u3068\u540d\u4ed8\u3051\u3001\u8ecd\u968a\u3067\u3042\u308b\u3053\u3068\u3092\u660e\u78ba\u306b\u4f4d\u7f6e\u3065\u3051\u305f\u3002\u307e\u305f\u3001\u8c61\u5fb4\u5929\u7687\u5236\u3092\u7dad\u6301\u3059\u308b\u3053\u3068\u3068\u3057\u3001\u5929\u7687\u3092\u300c\u5143\u9996\u300d\u3068\u3059\u308b\u3053\u3068\u3092\u898b\u9001\u3063\u305f\u3002\u59d4\u54e1\u4f1a\u306f\u4eca\u5f8c\u3001\u8981\u7db1\u6848\u3092\u3082\u3068\u306b\u7d50\u515a\uff15\uff10\u5e74\u306e\u4eca\u5e74\uff11\uff11\u6708\u306b\u767a\u8868\u3059\u308b\u515a\u65b0\u61b2\u6cd5\u8349\u6848\u306e\u6761\u6587\u5316\u4f5c\u696d\u306b\u5165\u308b\u3002<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When I read this, I could not believe my eyes. Is this really happening? What year is this?????<\/p>\n \u8981\u7db1\u6848\u306e\u5185\u5bb9\u306f\u3001\u305f\u3068\u3048\u3070\u5929\u7687\u306b\u3064\u3044\u3066\u3001\u524d\u6587\u306b\u300c\u65e5\u672c\u56fd\u6c11\u306f\u56fd\u6c11\u7d71\u5408\u306e\u8c61\u5fb4\u305f\u308b\u5929\u7687\u3068\u5171\u306b\u6b74\u53f2\u3092\u523b\u3093\u3067\u304d\u305f\u300d\u3068\u306e\u8868\u73fe\u3092\u52a0\u3048\u3066\u300c\u81ea\u6c11\u515a\u3089\u3057\u3055\u300d\u3092\u76db\u308a\u8fbc\u3080\u4e00\u65b9\u3001\u515a\u5185\u306e\u4e00\u90e8\u306b\u6839\u5f37\u3044\u652f\u6301\u304c\u3042\u3063\u305f\u300c\u5143\u9996\u5316\u300d\u3092\u65ad\u5ff5\u3059\u308b\u306a\u3069\u3001\u4eca\u5f8c\u306e\u61b2\u6cd5\u6539\u6b63\u4f5c\u696d\u3092\u73fe\u5b9f\u7684\u306b\u9032\u3081\u308b\u3053\u3068\u3092\u5ff5\u982d\u306b\u3001\u516c\u660e\u515a\u3084\u91ce\u515a\u306e\u4e3b\u5f35\u306b\u914d\u616e\u3092\u307f\u305b\u305f\u3082\u306e\u3068\u306a\u3063\u3066\u3044\u308b\u3002<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The word that I translated as “sovereign” here is genshu<\/em> (\u5143\u9996). (Wikipedia<\/a> translates it as either “head of state” or “sovereign”). It is a word that comes from the pre-war constitution, The Great Japanese Imperial Constitution, which was promulgated in 1889 and revised during the Allied occupation (1945-51). [The image shows the first page of the original constitution, taken from here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n In the old pre-war constitution, the fourth article stipulates that the emperor is the genshu<\/em> of Japan. This comes right after an article that declares the emperor to be divine. <\/p>\n So it has really come to this? Can someone wake me up from this nightmare? Are they soon going to start hailing Akihito as, indeed, a god?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asahi Shinbun reports that the LDP has accepted plans to push for changing the name “Self-Defense Force”(\u300c\u81ea\u885b\u968a\u300d) to “Self-Defense Military” (\u300c\u81ea\u885b\u8ecd\u300d). This is a bit alarming and I am sure that, if not already, there will be harsh criticism from Japan’s neighbors in the coming days. But what made me shiver in reading this news…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,184,61,193,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","category-law","category-nationalism","category-political","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yoH3-1mJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5777,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions\/5777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![here<\/a>.]<\/p>\nIn the old pre-war constitution, the fourth article stipulates that the emperor is the genshu<\/em> of Japan. This comes right after an article that declares the emperor to be divine. <\/p>\nSo it has really come to this? Can someone wake me up from this nightmare? Are they soon going to start hailing Akihito as, indeed, a god?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asahi Shinbun reports that the LDP has accepted plans to push for changing the name “Self-Defense Force”(\u300c\u81ea\u885b\u968a\u300d) to “Self-Defense Military” (\u300c\u81ea\u885b\u8ecd\u300d). This is a bit alarming and I am sure that, if not already, there will be harsh criticism from Japan’s neighbors in the coming days. But what made me shiver in reading this news…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,184,61,193,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","category-law","category-nationalism","category-political","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yoH3-1mJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5777,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions\/5777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/ja.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%E7%94%BB%E5%83%8F:Meiji_Kenpo04.jpg\"){kind=link}