日相推動修憲 專家憂人權倒退
日本執政黨自民黨在大選中獲得壓倒性勝利後決定推動修憲。籠罩在改革失敗的失望氣氛中，日本正在“向右轉”，而這一趨勢可能超出預期。
(德國之聲中文網)日本首相安倍晉三推動大舉修憲，各界則擔憂日本可能回到上世紀初封閉的軍國主義狀態。自從自民黨1955年成立以來，該黨便呼籲徹底重新審視並改寫日本和平憲法，聲稱該憲法是第二次世界大戰後盟軍強加於日本的。如今，在最高法律頒布近70年後，安倍晉三得到了眾議院壓倒性的多數，預計今年夏季也將在參議院選舉中鞏固足夠的席位。
安倍晉三已經宣布，他的第一步將是修訂修憲的必要程序。目前的修憲門檻是必須獲得兩院全體議員三分之二以上的贊成票，安倍有意修改為多數贊成即可。
明治大學法學院教授雷佩塔（Lawrence Repeta）警告道，這一步最終將演變為"政府擁有更多凌駕於人民之上的權力，個人權利的保障被降低"。
自民黨在2012年4月28日提出修憲草案。當日正是日本與同盟國簽訂《舊金山和平條約》60年紀念日。該黨的提議將影響日本的許多生活層面以及與世界各國的關係。
日本首相希望下調修憲門檻
人權受到威脅
雷佩塔教授表示："如果通過這項計劃，日本將與全球拓展人權保護和政府責任機制的走向背道而馳。"
雷佩塔與日本自由人權協會（Japan Civil Liberties Union）和許多法律專家都檢視了自民黨的修憲草案。他指出了多個值得關注的重要領域。
例如，現行憲法第97條對公民人權的基本保障的規定將被全數刪除：
他表示："這是關於人權的一項非常廣泛的聲明，而自民黨卻只想刪除它。我們在解釋手冊中無法找到支持這項決定的聲明。" 取而代之的是人民將在新憲法的規定下有責任表現出對"國旗和國歌的尊重"。
此外，憲法也將要求人民"不得違背公共秩序或公共利益"，但法學專家表示，這項規定中沒有關於公眾利益的定義，這將賦予警察和司法當局廣泛且無定義的新權力。
而憲法草案的第19條第2款則稱，"任何人不得不當獲取、擁有或使用個人相關資料"，這條同樣籠統的要求可能被用於侵犯新聞自由。自民黨提議的新憲法中也包含對言論自由的新限制。
回到30年代
專家憂心,自民黨提出的憲法草案將使人權後退
日本學習院大學法學教授紙谷雅子（Masako Kamiya）表示："我的猜測是，他們心目中的日本應該更趨近於上世紀30年代初期戰前的日本。"
她補充道："我相信許多自民黨員同意那個時代相當不錯，存在著一些美好的價值；當時的社會和諧，年輕人安分守己、敬老尊賢，社會秩序是依照政府和當局所訂立的規範。"
"不幸的是，這項提案的內容包括了一些變革，這些變革忽視我們的前人所作的選擇。"
自由人權協會的主要關注內容則是那些明顯經過深思熟慮、與全球人權發展方向相左的決定。
自民黨在其網站上解釋了理由稱，"在編寫本草案時，我們首先徹底審查了聽起來像是翻譯的措辭，以及看似是基於自然權利理論的規定。"
該聲明還寫道："權利是通過歷史、傳統和文化逐步演變而成。我們相信人權相關規定應該反映出日本的歷史、文化和傳統。"
西方的概念
自民黨認為，目前的憲法包含了一些基於西方自然權利理論的規定，認為這些規定應該予以修改。
法學家雷佩塔稱，人們有理由對此擔心："我們正進入了一個新時期，世界對於人權概念更為警醒，但是自民黨似乎在說那是錯誤的，他們不願成為其中一部分。總體而言，這更像是政府權力凌駕於人民之上，並且降低了對人權的維護。"
"這份文件清楚顯示，他們的世界觀脫離了對基本人權更普遍的認知。"
作者：Julian Ryall 編譯：張筠青
責編：石濤
日本媒體普遍稱讚安倍訪美獲得成果
更新時間 2013年2月25日, 格林尼治標準時間13:42
中國傳媒譏諷安倍訪美遭冷遇。
日本《產經新聞》和富士電視台周一（25日）發表了過去兩天聯合對全國千人做的電話調查結果，顯示安倍政權的支持率比1月份調查時上升超過5個百分點，達到69.6%。
其中讚賞首相安倍晉三訪美、通過日美首腦會談加強了日美同盟的民意有76.5%；贊成日本政府公開中國軍艦使用射控雷達的事件並向中國抗議的民意有90.1%、贊成日本政府立即加強制裁朝鮮的民意為89.1%。會談內容
日美首腦1小時45分鐘的會談究竟談了什麼，日本外務省公布的內容中，有關釣魚島（日稱尖閣諸島）的部 分是：「兩位首腦討論了包括尖閣諸島在內的狀況，安倍說日本冷靜對待中國，包括政治層面在內，希望繼續與中國對話，兩位首腦一致同意以日美同盟為基礎開展 合作，使這個地區不以實力而以規範來支配」。而日本主流傳媒至周一為止的報道，除了安倍與奧巴馬談笑內容外，大部分是安倍表態。安倍在美會談後在記 者會上說希望與中國新領導人習近平會談。安倍在美國戰略國際問題研究所（CSIC）的演講中表示：「不是要叫美國做什麼，而是要靠日本自己的力量守衛尖 閣」。《每日新聞》對此分析指出安倍已感到並顧慮到美國擔心中日東海衝突、擔憂捲入紛爭的立場。
一個叫做「記錄中國（Record China）」的小傳媒周一在網頁引述外交界透露的消息說，日美首腦討論釣魚島問題後，認為首先是「維持現狀」，奧巴馬敦促安倍擱置「在釣魚島常駐公務 員」的自民黨公約，修複中日關係。報道引述透露消息的人士認為，安倍不得不對此採取擱置態度。
良好反應
主張中日友好的報紙發表社論紛紛讚揚安倍表示冷靜對待中日糾紛的立場，不過《朝日新聞》的社論也說： 「日美首腦對中國有溫差，奧巴馬對記者們說「對日美兩國來說最重要的方面是經濟成長」，所以現在美國不想與中國敵對，而比起中美，更不和的是中日，美國不 願捲入中日紛爭的聲音高漲，所以美國謀求日本採取慎重態度，如果錯誤估計這一點，日美信賴關係也會崩潰」，社論呼籲安倍不要以冷戰態度來敵視中國，應該更 具戰略眼光。日本「2頻道」網絡上一些人士指責《朝日新聞》社論說：「這與中國譏諷安倍如出一轍」。
主張日美同盟的《讀賣新聞》、《產經新聞》、《日本經濟新聞》的社論也讚揚安倍修複了日美關係，並敦促安倍盡快調整國內對日本加入跨太平洋戰略伙伴關係協定(TPP)談判的分歧。
大部分國民也顯得更關心安倍與奧巴馬會談中顯示日本加入談判意向，因為這關係到所有人今後生活乃至生存問題，日本經濟界和全國農協已分別發表贊成與反對的聲明。
Agonistes
Japan’s emphatic general election
Abe agonistes
A party comes back from the dead, but still remembers where to find the switch for the printing presses
Dec 22nd 2012 | TOKYO | from the print edition
SHINZO ABE, who will become Japan’s new prime minister on December 26th, is wasting little time in offering the goodies. The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which staged a remarkable return to power in elections on December 16th, has made reviving an economy sapped by deflation the central goal of his “crisis-beating” cabinet. It is likely to start with pressure on the central bank to reflate the economy. A big dollop of public spending may follow (smothering the country in concrete is an old speciality of the party). As for Japan’s trade-damaging tensions with China, the hawkish Mr Abe wants to put them to one side for now.
His startling victory brings back a prime minister whose previous year in office, in 2006-07, was a shambles. It also brings back a party crushed in the general election of 2009. Mr Abe acknowledges that voters gave him a decisive victory not out of love for his party or ideas, but out of despair at the outgoing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) which, at war with itself, struggled to make policy. With a dozen parties, the election field was crowded, dividing the anti-LDP vote. One newspaper columnist described the LDP win as like choosing a plate of Japanese-style curry rice on a menu where nothing appeals: it was the least bad option. Meanwhile, the party’s formidable powers of organisation also counted for something.
With 325 seats, the LDP and its coalition partner, New Komeito, have a “supermajority” in the 480-seat lower house of parliament: that is, more than the two-thirds of seats necessary to override a veto by the upper house, which the opposition controls. Amazingly, the LDP achieved this despite notching up almost 4m fewer votes than when it was routed in 2009. Support for the DPJ collapsed, in other words. It was the third election in a row in which voters swung savagely against the incumbents. Given such volatility, it is too early to expect a comfortable LDP victory in an election for the upper house next July. Voters swinging like weathervanes are now the norm. But if offered decisive leadership—markedly absent for several years—they may yet prove more constant.
Mr Abe promises to put his energies into fixing the economy. As well as an even looser monetary policy to end Japan’s fifth recession in 15 years, he also calls for a burst of public spending of perhaps {Yen}10 trillion ($120 billion). It would be financed by more borrowing on the part of a state that already has debts of over 200% of GDP.
Japan’s big-business lobby, Keidanren, is underwhelmed by all this. It wants Mr Abe to boost productivity, for instance, by deregulating farming and medicine, both sources of LDP support. Still, presumably because investors bet that Mr Abe’s views may prevail upon the Bank of Japan, on the day after the election the stockmarket hit its highest level in more than eight months. A strong yen has reacted to “Abenomics” by skidding to a 20-month low of nearly {Yen}85 to the dollar.
Mr Abe is pressing the central bank to set a hard target for inflation, of 2%. At present the bank has no target, but rather a more loosely defined inflation goal, of just 1%. Feathers flew during the campaign as the Bank of Japan hotly defended its independence. But as T he Economist went to press, its board members were believed to be discussing an inflation target.
This suggests that the central bank wants a truce of sorts. It is not yet in the clear, however. Mr Abe has floated the idea of rewriting the central-bank law, which may curb its independence. He has toyed with the idea of issuing public bonds underwritten by the bank. Even if Mr Abe chooses not to carry out his threats—such “fiscal financing” is highly unorthodox—he may still seek to appoint a more like-minded central-bank head when the term of the governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, expires in April.
Mr Abe does not unveil his full cabinet until December 26th, though key figures are already known. One is 72-year-old Taro Aso, another former prime minister, and fan of manga comics, who led the LDP to defeat in 2009. Mr Aso is rumoured to be the next finance minister. He will want to ensure economic growth that both helps the LDP win the next upper-house election and allows the consumption (sales) tax to be raised in 2014—a crucial step towards plugging the budget deficit.
Yoshihide Suga, a confidant of both Mr Aso and Mr Abe, is expected to have the crucial role of chief cabinet secretary and government spokesman. Some fear that the new leader may pick a cabinet of friends, as he did in 2006, with disastrous results. Yet Mr Abe has also retained a pragmatic former rival, Shigeru Ishiba, as the party’s secretary-general. It may be a sign of tolerance for those outside his clique.
Hanging over Mr Abe are two questions. One has to do with the physical and mental strength of the 58-year-old. Mr Abe stepped down in 2007 under immense strains. He says he is now taking proper medication for his long-standing bowel disorder, which is affected by stress.
The other question is Mr Abe’s nationalism and his tendency to gloss over or even deny the worst of Japan’s wartime misdeeds. At a time of heightened tensions over territorial disputes, he has it in his power to undermine Japan’s standing with China and South Korea, while putting off ordinary Japanese at home.
Tomohiko Taniguchi, a former foreign-ministry official now at Keio University, says Mr Abe will seek to strengthen relations with America, after a rocky patch under the DPJ. Closer relations with Asian democracies, including Australia and India, will follow. But although improving ties with China and South Korea will be a lower priority, Mr Taniguchi says, Mr Abe has learned from the “painful failure” of his earlier term in office, when all his talk about “patriotism” and “righteousness” carried little weight with voters.
He has not said whether he wants to take Japan into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an American-led free-trade grouping. The Keidanren is strongly for it. Farmers and other LDP backers are against. Mr Abe seems privately to be in favour.
Whether or not Japan’s neighbours let him brush off tensions with them over territories and history may depend on their new leaders. The attitude of China’s Communist Party chief, Xi Jinping, is unclear: pragmatism may trump dislike for Mr Abe’s views. As The Economist went to press, South Korea was electing a new president. Mr Abe, who is the grandson of a former prime minister once accused of war crimes, has refused to say whether or not he will visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which honours convicted war criminals among Japan’s war dead. If he does go, he can expect a backlash from neighbours.
Should Mr Abe refrain and set about reviving the economy instead, however, it would do wonders for Japan’s standing abroad. It would also be an unexpected thank you to the voters who cheerlessly put him into office this week.
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