Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday he wants his Liberal Democratic Party to submit proposals for discussions on changing Japan’s Constitution during an extraordinary Diet session likely to be convened in the fall. “I expect LDP proposals to be submitted at the Constitution commissions of the upper…
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday he wants his Liberal Democratic Party to submit proposals for discussions on changing Japan’s Constitution during an extraordinary Diet session likely to be convened in the fall.
“I expect LDP proposals to be submitted at the Constitution commissions of the upper and lower houses before the extra Diet session ends, ” Abe said in a speech in the city of Kobe, indicating his eagerness to step up discussion within the ruling party to realize the first-ever amendment of the country’s postwar Constitution.
Abe has set a year-end deadline for the LDP to devise its amendment proposals and it had been widely believed the party would seek to present them to the Constitution commissions in the next regular Diet session to be convened early next year.
The LDP has already started discussions among its members over the possible amendment of the war-renouncing Article 9, after Abe raised the issue of mentioning the Self-Defense Forces in the article to give the organization a legitimate position in the supreme law.
