That¡¯s it? It¡¯s over?
¡°Scattered like leaves in the autumn wind,¡± sighs Shukan Shincho magazine, speaking of the massive nationwide demonstrations that, through the summer, heralded (to some) a new political awakening of the Japanese masses (or something). The protesters¡¯ immediate target was new security legislation that robs Japan of its constitutional pacifism ¡ª but big as that issue was and is, a bigger one looms in the background: the evolution (revolution?) from passive democracy to active democracy.
¡°Down with war!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t destroy Article 9!¡± ¡ª so the sea of placards exclaimed, Article 9 being the Constitution¡¯s ban on war as a means of settling international conflicts. That so much excitement could fizzle so soon testifies, perhaps (or perhaps not, as we shall see), to the shortness of memory in a world of ceaseless news, endless newness, the infinite capacity of the new to swamp the old ¡ª ¡°old¡± meaning yesterday, if not this morning seen in the light of noon.
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