PM's aide takes heat for 'legal stability is irrelevant' comment

Yosuke Isozaki, an aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is being hammered by opposition parties for stating publicly that "legal stability is irrelevant" in connection with government-backed security bills that would open the way for Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

The security-related legislation went before the House of Councillors on July 27, and opposition party members were unrelenting in their calls for Isozaki to resign, spelling trouble for the bills right from the get-go.

Isozaki made the comment during a July 26 speech, in which he stated, "We should think on whether this legislation is necessary to protect our country. Legal stability is irrelevant." The statement strongly suggested that he believes it not always necessary to maintain legal stability when reinterpreting the Constitution, which the security legislation will do.

The Cabinet is looking to take time and care to explain the security bills in the upper chamber and obtain the understanding of the Japanese people, after ramming them through the House of Representatives triggered a severe drop in public support for the administration. That someone so close to Abe would apparently treat the legislation so lightly has triggered growing consternation within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of junior coalition partner Komeito, told his party's upper house caucus, "People on the government side, who are supposed to handle the legislation, should not then be sabotaging these efforts." LDP Secretary-General Sadakazu Tanigaki, meanwhile, said that Isozaki's comment "was absolutely thoughtless."

The opposition camp, meanwhile, has taken heart from Isozaki's verbal stumble. Democratic Party of Japan Secretary-General Yukio Edano told the news corps on July 27, "It's because you can't arbitrarily reinterpret the Constitution that people abide by its rules. How long will the prime minister continue to employ an aide who does not understand even the very basics of the principles undergirding the rule of law?"

Japan Innovation Party (JIP) House of Councillors caucus chief Toranosuke Katayama, meanwhile, stated that "legal stability is the most important thing to the law." Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Tadatomo Yoshida added his voice to the hail of criticism, saying, "Legal stability is indispensable to a country with a constitutional government. Isozaki's comment is very hard to forgive. He ought to resign."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that Isozaki's comment "was not meant to reject legal stability. There is no reason for him to resign." Suga added, however, that Isozaki "has to be careful not to make comments that will be misinterpreted."

Isozaki appeared before a panel of LDP members of the upper house special committee on security policy on July 28 to answer questions, and apologized for "causing difficulties to the people of Japan and the operation of the committee. I am reflecting on my comments from the bottom of my heart."