Members of Hiroshima Jichiroren participated in an annual gathering held in Hiroshima City to celebrate Constitution Day on May 3 and learned about the importance of policies on defense and diplomacy in conformity with the purposes of the Constitution of Japan.

The Constitution Day event is held nationwide every May 3 to call for peace and protection of the Constitution including the war-renouncing Article 9.

The event in Hiroshima for this year featuring Akira Kawasaki, an executive member of the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), was held at the Hiroshima Bar Associates building.

Kawasaki delivered a lecture entitled “Preparate for peace, not for war”.

Key points Kawasaki said in his speech were as follows:

• The Three Security Documents* could lead to the increase of military tensions in East Asia.
• People’s livelihood could be sacrificed for the government attempts to double its defense expenditure as Japan has enormous debt.

The peace activist highlighted the necessity of recognizing the basic principles of the Constitution again and said that the national security means to defend human rights and lives of people, but not to expand arms.

* National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy, and Defense Capability Enhancement Plan. These describe that Japan will acquire counterstrike capabilities and will double Japan’s defense budget by 2027.