Amid outcry from the opposition parties, the bill was passed in the Upper House with a majority vote from the governing Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. The law will take effect in three years.

"I am disappointed and would like to express strong objection" to the bill, said Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the Social Democratic Party. "The (referendum) law will in reality destroy the Constitution," Fukushima said following the bill's passage.

Fukushima also expressed anger over the short deliberation period in the Upper House -- barely one month since the bill passed the Lower House on April 13.

Like the other opposition parties, the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan voted against the governing coalition's bill. It submitted its own version to the Diet, but it was not voted on. The main difference between the two bills was that the ruling bloc limited the referendum to the Constitution while the DPJ broadened the range to include other important laws.

The idea of holding a referendum lay dormant for 60 years because "there are people among the general public who fear that revising the Constitution will turn (Japan back) into a prewar militant nation," said Hideo Otake, a political science professor at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts. That fear is based on the notion that "those trying to revise the Constitution are rightists," he said.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 19, 2007
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