The opposition, as well as ruling parties in Japan have submitted a bill together to the Lower House on April 8, 2014. The bill in question refers to lowering referendum voting age in the country to 18 and it has been marked as a step forward in achieving Shinzo Abe’s goal of revising Japanese Constitution.
The nation’s current referendum law was approved in 2007, under the first government of the Prime Minister to rectify a situation in which there is no specific process to hold a national referendum. The article 96 of the Constitution asks for an approval from two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers to place any constitutional revisions to a national referendum. However, it does not have many details on how such a ballot will be held.
The law in 2007 produced a number of provisions and one of them was a requirement that it needed over 100 Lower House Lawmakers, as well as 50 Upper House lawmakers to submit a bill for any revision to the Diet.
The bill was submitted by the country’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito, along with the opposition parties like People’s Life Party, Your Party, Democratic Party of Japan and Ishin no Kai. The submission of the bill will result in another political gain for the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.
Photo Credits: News AU
