(8 of 10)
Article IX. As Prime Minister, Kishi has had to deal simultaneously with the Socialist opposition and with his own faction-ridden party, which cannot always be depended upon for support. His longtime goal is revision of the "MacArthur" constitution ("It may take years, and I may not live to see it, but I intend to push forward until I die"). He proposes to make the Emperor again "head of state" instead of merely a symbol, to have provincial governors appointed by Tokyo instead of elected, and to alter the House of Councilors—Japan's Senate—by substituting a number of appointed "distinguished citizens" for some of the elected members. He also aims at erasing Article IX of the constitution ("Land, sea and air forces as well as other war potential will never be maintained").
This provision is already bypassed in a typical Japanese fashion. The 170,000 Japanese soldiers already under arms are referred to as a "Ground Self-Defense Force," not as an army. Similarly, a division is called an "area unit," and a tank, a "special combat vehicle." But, under whatever name, Japan's armed forces are small, and required to make do on less than 2% of the nation's gross national product. Pacifism is so ingrained in the new Japan that not even Kishi is likely in the foreseeable future to get more money or more men for this anomalous army.
Kishi's only important defeat in three years in office came when he sought to restore to the hated police some of their former authority, including the right to search suspected criminals. The response was tumultuous from those who remembered the tyrannical "thought-control" days. A brief teachers' walkout closed half the nation's schools. There was a rash of strikes and street demonstrations called by Sohyo, the powerful, 3,500,000-strong alliance of labor unions. Socialist delegates rioted in the Diet and tried to kidnap the Speaker to prevent a vote. When even important members of his own party proved hesitant, Kishi had to shelve the bill. But with characteristic skill he used the defeat to get rid of a potential rival, Ichiro Kono, on the ground that he had strongly pushed the police-powers bill.
If Kishi's ambitions for the police raised some of the old fears about democracy's hold on Japan, so has the crudity of Socialist tactics in the Diet and on the streets. Since the war the Socialist Party has steadily increased its share of the total vote, from little more than one-tenth to nearly one-third. But Kishi has gained from Socialist rashness. In the 1958 elections, Kishi for the first time limited the Socialist gains to less than 3%, and subsequent wrangling among the leaders resulted in a Socialist split between right-and left-wing factions.