The government may postpone until the summer officially changing its constitutional interpretation to enable the country to come to the defense of allies under attack, amid calls from within the ruling coalition for a careful debate on the matter, government and coalition sources said Sunday.
The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had planned to change the interpretation through a decision by the Cabinet by the June 22 end of the current session of the Diet.
But at a meeting on March 6, Abe and others, including Shigeru Ishiba, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, agreed that such a decision should not be made hastily, the sources said.