September 21,
2015 TAKUMI OKADA The Asahi
Shimbun
KYOTO--Jakucho Setouchi, a Buddhist monk and
novelist, denounced the Diet’s passage of security legislation as
“foolish” and “embarrassing,” and urged voters to oust lawmakers
who supported the bills in the next national election.
“Today’s politics is wrong,” the 93-year-old
said on Sept. 20, the day after the bills were enacted. “It is
foolish to allow Japan to fight (overseas) by abandoning
war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.”
Her remarks came during her monthly lay sermon
session at her temple in Kyoto’s Ukyo Ward, which was attended by
about 160 people.
The Diet enacted the legislation despite a
wave of huge rallies staged near the Diet building in Tokyo and
elsewhere and opinion polls showing a majority of the public
opposed to the bills.
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is so preoccupied
with wanting to leave his own legacy that he does not care at all
what ordinary people think,” Setouchi said. “Japan may wage war now
that the bills have been written into law. Abe should go to war
himself.”
She also said the way the ruling coalition
railroaded the bills through an Upper House special committee
session was “embarrassing.”
The security legislation lifts Japan’s
self-imposed ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense
for the first time since the end of World War II. Under the laws,
the Self-Defense Forces can use force overseas to assist an ally
under attack, even if Japan is not under a direct
threat.
Setouchi lived through World War II, lost
relatives in U.S. air raids on Japan, and has since been well known
for her commitment to peace.
She went on a hunger strike to protest the
1991 Persian Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan following the 2001
terrorist attacks against the United States.
Despite her ill health, she traveled to Tokyo
in June to speak against the security bills at a rally near the
Diet building.
Setouchi said she did see a glimmer of hope
when the Diet was deliberating the bills, namely the nationwide
movement spearheaded by the Students Emergency Action for Liberal
Democracy-s (SEALDs) consisting mainly of university students in
Tokyo and elsewhere.
“They are saying ‘the real test is ahead’ and
that ‘they should settle the matter in the upcoming national
election,’” said Setouchi, referring to SEALDs’ pledge to unseat
lawmakers who voted for the bills when the Upper House election is
held next summer.
Setouchi also called on women, who made up the
majority of the audience at the Sept. 20 session, to pay more
attention to the legislation and other political issues.
“We should not leave the matter just to men,”
the monk said. “You, too, should work hard.”
Setouchi said she will continue to speak out
against the legislation in future sessions and write about the
topic.