The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday adopted a concise plan on its long-cherished goal of revising Japan’s pacifist Constitution at its annual convention, apparently in consideration of local and national elections later in the year. In his address, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is the LDP president,
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday adopted a concise plan on its long-cherished goal of revising Japan’s pacifist Constitution at its annual convention, apparently in consideration of local and national elections later in the year.
In his address, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is the LDP president, reiterated his strong desire to amend the supreme law by clarifying the status of the Self-Defense Forces in the war-renouncing Article 9 to end academic debates over their constitutionality.
“Finally, it is time to work toward the constitutional revision, which has been our dearest wish since the establishment of the party,” Abe told the LDP’s convention in Tokyo.
But he stopped short of mentioning detailed procedures or a timeframe.
The party’s action plan endorsed at the convention merely touched on its push to realize a first-ever amendment to the 1947 Constitution in one paragraph in its preamble, although it dedicated a separate chapter to the subject last year.
