The House of Councillors Commission on the Constitution held its first debate of the current Diet session on the 4th, with the Liberal Democratic Party calling for revision text to be drafted and consolidated quickly.
Kitamura Tsuneo of the LDP said it is "extremely unnatural that the public has never once been asked whether revision is necessary." He cited the four revision items the party advocates, including writing the Self-Defense Forces into the Constitution, and said debate should continue toward drafting and consolidating clause text without delay.
Konishi Hiroyuki of the Constitutional Democratic Party criticized Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, who has said she wants to set a target for submitting a revision proposal by next year's LDP convention. He said submitting clause text on the emergency provisions to the Diet by the end of next March, as the ruling coalition set out in its coalition agreement, is "absolutely impermissible."
Ueda Seiji of the Democratic Party for the People named abolishing the merged electoral districts — pairing neighboring prefectures into a single constituency for Upper House elections — as one of his priority items.
Democratic Reform Party leaves consumption tax bill to leaders
The Democratic Reform Party decided to oppose the consumption tax cut bill and left the matter to its leaders, according to a separate item carried alongside the commission report.