House of Councillors Representative Masuzoe Presents the International Bureau's Special Lecture on the Japanese Constitution

February 7, 2006

 

Following the LDP's announcement of its new draft constitution at the end of the last year, a special English-language lecture explaining the draft was held on February 7, at the Party Headquarters. The aim was to deepen understanding of foreign countries on this matter, especially aimed at the foreign diplomats and journalists. The presenter was Yoichi Masuzoe, Member of the House of Councillors, one of the drafting members as deputy director of the Drafting Committee on the new Constitution. With the title "The Fate of the Japanese Constitution: the new image of Japan embodied in the LDP's constitutional draft", Mr Masuzoe explained in detail the Constitutional draft including such issues as Article 9 and the articles on the Emperor, as well as on Japan's history, tradition and culture. The presentation was followed by a lively and far-ranging question and answer session. The strong interest in Japan's constitutional issue was clearly in evidence. At the same time the afternoon was extremely useful for the LDP in enabling the issues surrounding the new draft constitution to be discussed frankly with the foreign guests.