Vancouver Save Article 9 was established in May, 2005 to work for preservation, realization, and promotion of Article 9, the war-renunciation clause of the Japanese Constitution. Since 2021, our activities have been mostly on-line, involving audiences in all Canada, Japan, and beyond. Our online identity is "Article 9 Canada." バンクーバー九条の会は2005年に設立されました。戦争放棄、武力不保持を誓う日本国憲法を守り、実現し、その精神を日本国外に広めるために活動しています。2021年より、「カナダ9条の会」としてオンラインの活動をしています。連絡先はTo contact us, email article9canada@gmail.com
Peace March in New York, May 2, in which one hundred Hibakusha (a-bomb survivors) among the 15,000 participants called for nuclear weapons abolition. 5月2日、ニューヨークで核廃絶のための平和行進の様子。日本から参加した100人の被爆者をはじめ、15,000人がニューヨークのタイムズスクエアから国連本部まで行進した。
イベントのご案内です。下方に日本語案内があります。
You are invited to:
A Special Event after the United Nations NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) Review Conference:
"Determined for a World Without Nuclear Weapons: an Evening with Sachi Rummel, a Hiroshima witness"
Time and Date: 7-9 PM, Wednesday, June 2
Place: Room C (Ground Floor), Roundhouse Community Centre , Yaletown, Downtown Vancouver (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC - Roundhouse Station of Canada Line)
A month-long negotiation of the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) Review Conference will come to the conclusion on May 28th. Satoko Norimatsu, Director of Peace Philosophy Centre and a founding member of Vancouver Save Article 9 will report her experience of NPT activities in New York, where near one hundred Hibakusha (a-bomb survivors) gathered to influence the UN's policy towards nuclear disarmament. The special guest of the evening will be Sachi Rummel, a Hiroshima witness. Sachi will share her precious experience of the atomic-bombing on August 6, 1945 and her life afterwards.
The primary language of this event will be English. Japanese/English translation can be provided during discussion.
Profile: Sachi Rummel Sachi was born in Hiroshima. Sachi was 8 years old, and at her school 3.5 kilometre away from the hypocentre when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. She married a Canadian man and moved to Canada in 1975. She has two children. Sachi's hobbies are tea ceremony and flower arrangement.
(graph from Chosun Online. Graph shows Asahi and Yomiuri Polls.
Constitution revision necessary?
Yomiuri Yes - 43% No - 42%
Asahi Yes - 47% No - 39%
Should Article 9 be changed?
Yomiuri Yes - 32% No - 44%
Asahi Yes - 24% No - 67%
This has been an overall trend in many polls - people can agree to the general idea of constitutional revision, but it is generally the case that more people want to keep Article 9 as it is.
On May 18, 2010, the three-year freeze on the National Referendum Law was removed. Here are various news reports on the topic.
TOKYO (Kyodo News)— A law on a referendum for revising the Constitution came into effect on Tuesday, three years after its enactment, setting the scene for people to vote on any proposed revision of the pacifist Constitution. The National Referendum Law stipulates procedures for constitutional revisions and allows revision proposals to be submitted to the Diet at any time.
But the deliberative councils on the Constitution in both houses of the Diet, where draft revision proposals are to be deliberated, have so far been dormant. The law was enacted in 2007 by a coalition led by the then ruling Liberal Democratic Party as part of the party’s House of Councillors election manifesto.
However, the Democratic Party of Japan, which wrested power from the LDP in the House of Representatives election last August, has been reluctant to debate the issue as one of its coalition partners—the Social Democratic Party—staunchly opposes changing the Constitution.
As the law allows people aged 18 or older to vote in a referendum on revising the Constitution, it requires that other relevant laws also be revised before its enforcement to lower the age to 18 from 20 to be eligible to vote in elections, but the government has taken no concrete steps, citing the need for more discussion.
Meanwhile, the main opposition LDP has been studying revisions to its draft new constitution worked out in 2005 to make it more conservative, ahead of this summer’s upper house election.