[Please nominate two Japanese pacifist organizations for the Nobel Peace Prize to defend Article 9 of the Constitution, which renounces war.]
We, the Executive Committee for “The Nobel Peace Prize for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution”, started the action to nominate the following 2 organizations for THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2023.
TheNationwide Network for Lawsuits on the Unconstitutionality of the New SecurityLaws
and
The National Citizens’ Action to Say No! to the Revision of Article 9 of the Constitution
have long stood at the forefront of the movement to safeguard the Constitution of Japan in order to protect Article 9 of the Constitution that renounces war, and to ensure that Japan practices and disseminates the principle represented by Article 9 around the world.
Please Nominate these Organizations for the
Nobel Peace Prize!
The Constitution of Japan firmly upholds pacifism. It renounces war and refuses to possess armed forces and to recognize the right of belligerency so that the country will never repeat the mistake of waging war and will help bring peace to the entire world. As an initiative to maintain this great Constitution, especially the Preamble and Article 9, and to ensure that Japan practices and disseminates these pacifist principles around the world, the Executive Committee for “The Nobel Peace Prize for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution” has decided to launch a campaign to nominate for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize two organizations that have long stood at the forefront of the movement to safeguard the current Constitution. These organizations are the Nationwide Network for Lawsuits on the Unconstitutionality of the New Security Laws, and the National Citizens’ Action to Say No! to the Revision of Article 9 of the Constitution.
The Japanese government has announced that Japan will possess the
capability to attack enemies’ military bases, and that the country will
increase its defense spending to 43 trillion yen in total over the next five
years. With this increase, Japan will become the world’s third-largest military
powerhouse behind the United States and China. What the government is trying to
do is change the Constitution for the worse, or reduce it to a dead letter,
turning Japan into a state ready to engage in war. For peoples of other
countries, the militarization of Japan is nothing but a threat to peace. We
live in the world where war never ceases to break out. What Japan should do is
strive for the ideal and objective that the Constitution espouses in order to
create a world that no longer sees war.
Having experienced the catastrophe of the Asia-Pacific War, the
citizens of Japan declared their determination not to engage in war ever again
as their promise to the world. The Preamble and Article 9 of the Constitution
of Japan represent this promise. War breaks out as a conflict between
governments, yet it is humans that decide to launch or end war.
The Preamble
states, “we have determined to preserve our security and existence,
trusting in the justice and faith of the peace-loving peoples of the world,”
declaring that trusting in the justice and faith of peace-loving human beings
is the way to prevent war, or stop any started wars.
With this preamble as the premise, and with the knowledge of the
mistakes humans had made, Article 9 of the Constitution stipulates the
following in Paragraphs 1 and 2 in order to fundamentally deter war that is
provoked by distrust of human beings: “the Japanese people forever renounce war
as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of
settling international disputes”; “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other
war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state
will not be recognized.”
In this light, the Constitution of Japan is a step closer to peace
than Article 51 of the United Nations Charter that endorses, to a limited extent, individual or collective
self-defense in an emergency. The UN Charter was signed on June 26, 1945, which
means that it was written when the world had not witnessed the horrors of the
nuclear weapons dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Constitution of Japan, which was written after humankind experienced
even more appalling cruelty , presents the world’s greatest and most progressive provisions.
However, with the passage of time, a movement has emerged to label
these provisions as an unattainable ideal that should be destroyed.
The Japanese government had long stated that the right of collective self-defense was unconstitutional. In July 2014, the Abe administration had this right approved by its Cabinet, overturning the long-standing statement. In the early morning of September 19, 2015, the administration railroaded the security bill (“war legislation”). To challenge the constitutionality of this legislation in court, the Nationwide Network for Lawsuits on the Unconstitutionality of the New Security Laws instituted 25 civil actions in 22 courts across Japan in April 2016, starting from Tokyo. Currently, 7,699 plaintiffs and 1,685 attorneys are fighting without pay, urging the judicial branch, which has the authority to determine the constitutionality of legislation under the system of separation of powers, to fulfill its primary responsibility in this extraordinary situation where the legislative and executive branches have violated the Constitution. This has been an uphill battle, with all the verdicts delivered against the plaintiffs thus far, while none of the decisions state that the security legislation is constitutional. This legal battle has been extensive, in-depth, and fierce.
The National Citizens’ Action to Say No! to the Revision of Article 9 of the Constitution (formerly called the National Citizens’ Action to Say No! to the Revision of Article 9 of the Constitution by Abe) was launched at the initiative of the All-Out Action Committee for No War and No Destruction of Article 9, and the Article 9 Association, in August 2017. The launch was a response to a call for action announced by 19 initiators, who were driven by a sense of urgency as they saw the possible revision of the Constitution for the worse, to prevent further moves by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who clearly expressed his will to revise Article 9. The organization works with numerous pacifist organizations and individuals to continue its protest against the violations of the Constitution committed by the government.
The National Citizens’ Action also collected 12,369,461 signatures
for its petition called “Signatures for the Constitution,” which it already
submitted to the government. The organization continues to collect signatures
for more petitions and engage in campaigns to fight the battle to prevent the
revision of Article 9.
As you see, the Nationwide Network for Lawsuits on the
Unconstitutionality of the New Security Laws has been engaging in the legal
fight based on the Constitution, which is the country’s supreme law, in order
to stop the government from further running out of control; and the National
Citizens’ Action to Say No! to the Revision of Article 9 of the Constitution,
which is Japan’s largest pro-Constitution organization, has been fighting by
voicing its protest at the Diet and collecting signatures for petitions to
represent public opinion. If the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to these two
organizations, Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, which was written and
maintained to represent the people’s yearning for peace, may serve as a clear
signpost pointing to world peace. We also believe that, once the Prize is
awarded, Article 9 will give hope to anyone around the world who pray for
peace, along with the strength needed to take a step toward peace that does not
rely on armed forces.
Now is the time to protect, practice, and disseminate Article 9 of
the Constitution of Japan that renounces war as the world’s new standard.
Hence, we ask that you nominate these organizations for the Nobel Peace Prize.
It would also be greatly appreciated if we could receive your help in expanding
the wave of nomination by those who meet the nomination criteria across the
world.
Praying that we will see the world without
war as soon as possible,
January 7, 2023
Joint Representatives of the Executive Committee for “The Nobel
Peace Prize for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution”
Yoshiaki Ishigaki, Hisashi Okada, Masayuki Ochiai, Naomi Takasu, Yasuyo Takeuchi
Criteria for Nominators
l Members of national assemblies and
national governments (cabinet members/ministers) of sovereign states as well as
current heads of state
l Members of The International Court
of Justice in The Hague and The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague
l Members of l'Institut de Droit
International
l Members of the International Board
of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
l University professors, professors
emeriti and associate professors of history, social sciences, law, philosophy,
theology, and religion; university rectors and university directors (or their
equivalents); directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy
institutes
l Persons who have been awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize
l Members of the main board of
directors or its equivalent of organizations that have been awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize
l Current and former members of the
Norwegian Nobel Committee
l Former advisers to the Norwegian
Nobel Committee
(From the website of the Nobel Prize: https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/nobel-peace-prize/nomination/criteria-for-nominators)
Deadline for Submission of
Nominations
31 January at 12 midnight CET.
How to Make a Nomination
Each nomination should be submitted
by an individual or joint nominator(s).
● Individual nominator
Please use the online nomination
form available on the website of the Norwegian Nobel Committee:
https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/nobel-peace-prize/nomination/nomination-form
Once you register as a nominator by following the instructions on
the page, you will be able to enter information about the candidates and submit
supporting documents for nomination (in PDF format, up to 20 MB) directly to
the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
A direct nomination would be greatly appreciated, so that several reasons for
nomination given by different nominators would be presented to the Committee. Please contact us
if you need further clarification as to how to enter the information.
* If we could publish your name as a nominator, please email your name and qualification for making a nomination (your
university, specialization, and title if you are a university professor) in
Japanese and English to the Executive
Committee at c.npp4a9@gmail.com no later than January 31.
● Joint nominators
If you could support the statements in the nomination letter below
and be a joint nominator, please email your name and qualification for making a nomination (your
university, specialization, and title if you are a university professor) in
Japanese and English to the Executive Committee at c.npp4a9@gmail.com no later than January 25. The
Executive Committee will put you on the list of nominators that will be
submitted to the Norwegian Nobel Committee by Professor Shigeaki Iijima
(constitutional law and peace studies) of Nagoya Gakuin University.
Nomination Letter
I nominate
for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, as they stand at the
forefront of the movement to protect Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan
that renounces war and to disseminate the principle that the Article represents
around the world.
Japan adopted the Preamble and Article 9 of the Constitution of
Japan in order to declare its determination not to engage in war ever again
after its citizens experienced the catastrophe of the Asia-Pacific War.
However, the Japanese government has announced that the country will
have the capability to attack enemies’ military bases and other policies that
will enable pre-emptive attacks. The government has recently announced that
Japan will increase its defense spending to 43 trillion yen over the next five
years, which will make the country the world’s third-largest military
powerhouse behind the United States and China. This is nothing but an attempt
to change the Constitution for the worse or reduce it to a dead letter, so that
Japan will turn into a state ready to engage in war.
Despite these challenging circumstances, these two organizations are
determined not to allow the change to materialize and continue their activities
to safeguard the pacifist Constitution and prevent war at all costs.
In July 2014, the Japanese government had the security legislation,
which is also called a war legislation, approved by the Cabinet, and in
September 2015, the government railroaded the legislation at the Diet. the
Nationwide Network for Lawsuits on the Unconstitutionality of the New Security
Laws stated that the legislation was utterly unconstitutional, and instituted 25 civil actions in 22 courts across Japan. 7,700
plaintiffs and 1,700 attorneys have strong support from a great many citizens
of the country.
The National Citizens’ Action to Say No! to the Revision of Article
9 of the Constitution integrates actions by peace organizations across Japan to
protest against the series of constitutional violations by the Japanese
government. The National Citizen’s Action collected 12,369,461 signatures for
the petition “Signatures for the Constitution,” which was submitted to the
government.
To protect Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan that renounces war, and to ensure that Japan practices and disseminates the principle that the Article represents around the world, I nominate these two organizations that have continued to stand at the forefront of the movement to safeguard the current Constitution of Japan.
