Introducing the Concept of Sustainability into the Japanese Constitution
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May 3rd is the Constitution Day, a national holiday in Japan. As you may
know, the Japanese Constitution was drawn up almost sixty years ago when
World War II ended, and since then, not a single word of the constitution
has changed despite drastic changes in various aspects of the country as
well as other parts of the world including socio-economic aspects, politics,
culture, and the environment. It has been a gtabooh even to argue in favor
of any amendments to the Constitution. However, some courageous people
and organizations have begun to claim the necessity to amend the constitution,
and the non-profit organization, gJapan Association of the Environment
and Society for the 21st Century (JAES21),h of which I am a representative,
is among them.
As one of our activities to restore the sustainability of Japanese society,
we proposed a constitutional amendment to include an environmental principle
in January of this year. It was supposedly unnecessary to include the environment
in the Constitution at the time when it was drafted. However, immediate
environmental issues such as rapid increase and qualitative change in wastes,
as well as global environmental issues such as global warming, have reached
a level that threatens our present and future daily life. I believe that
now is the time to stipulate environmental conservation, the most fundamental
matter for the sustainability of our business activities and daily life,
in the Constitution taking the gravity and urgency of environmental issues
into account. Creation of a sustainable society therefore must be the fourth
principle in addition to popular sovereignty, democracy and respect for
basic human rights in order to articulate the direction of the country.
I assume that we will create the possibility of sewing the seeds of future
calamities if we fail it now.
The time is demanding more than pacifism stipulated in Article 9 to assure
peace and stability of the country and the world, although the article
is certainly of extreme importance, since humanity is at stake exemplified
as the extreme difference between the rich and the poor that harbors terrorism
and breakdown of social order, and destabilization of food and water supply,
degradation of ecosystem and threat to human health caused by climate change.
Securing sustainability is increasingly important as well.
To stipulate environmental principle in our Constitution will clarify the
direction of the country towards a sustainable society, and position the
importance of environmental issues in politics. As a result, the present
socio-economic system that focuses exclusively on economy will be transformed
into one well-balanced between the environment and economy. Specific examples
of this transformation would be the progress of tax reform that creates
balances between the environment and economy, exercising environmental
leadership in diplomacy, facilitating legal proceedings concerning environmental
conservation, and enhancement of the conventional concept of national security.
Our proposal of the constitutional amendment consists of two parts. One
of them corresponds to the Preamble. We will add 1) responsibility for
the environment, 2) concern for future generations, 3) rights to live in
a sustainable society, to the second paragraph of the Preamble (no revisions
for other parts).
The other is the addition of a chapter. The new Chapter g Environmenth
consists of four articles, whose main points are:
1) All people shall have the right to enjoy our life base, the environment,
and the responsibility to protect it and pass it on to next generations,
2) The government must prioritize environmental conservation whenever they
plan and implement a project or a measure, and guarantee the participation
of private organizations,
3) All people must stand on the precautionary principle that any event
that includes the possibility to greatly affect human health and ecosystems
must be forestalled even though it lacks absolute scientific evidence,
4) International cooperation must be actively promoted.
Above is the outline of our proposal of the amendment of the Japanese Constitution.
We earnestly hope that the Diet will deliberate on the environmental principle
in view of the gravity and urgency of environmental issues prior to other
matters concerning the constitutional amendment.
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