Momentum for amending the Constitution has ebbed markedly in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after the prime minister expended much political capital in getting unpopular national security legislation enacted, observers said.

Since the legislation’s passage on Sept. 19, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shifted his focus back to the economy and issues of sharp interest to voters, particularly social security.

Many LDP lawmakers have become cautious about making constitutional amendments a key issue in the Upper House election next summer, party sources said.

Abe sees it differently. At a conference of a conservative group in Tokyo last week, Keiji Furuya, head of the LDP’s task force on proposed constitutional revisions, said the prime minister is still bent on revising the Constitution, particularly the war-renouncing Article 9. Changing it could recast the SDF as a full-fledged military

“We must be absolutely careful not to cause any failure,” Furuya said. Japan has not revised its national charter since it entered into force in 1947.

Revising the Constitution is a long-held pet project of Abe’s. But he has been quiet on the matter recently.

“We should make (the) necessary amendment,” Abe told a news conference last Thursday, adding that his LDP will include the proposed revision in its platform for the Upper House election.

But he chose his words carefully, saying, “We will redouble efforts to ensure our draft amendment draws broad-based support.”

At a news conference in New York last week, Abe mainly discussed the nation’s economic health, saying he will work hard to strengthen the economy.

In the Diet session that ended late last month, the ruling and opposition parties quarreled over the constitutionality of the national security legislation.

“Abe’s government is destroying the country’s constitutionalism,” said Yukio Edano, secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Japan, the biggest opposition party.

Among voters, opinion polls found rising disapproval of the legislation, which marks a major shift in Japan’s postwar national security policy. It allows the nation to exercise the right to collective self-defense and expands the scope of the Self-Defense Forces’ overseas operations significantly.

The coming Upper House election will be an important event to determine whether Abe is able to pave the way for the constitutional revision while he is in office.

But an LDP executive said, “It is all but impossible for the ruling bloc to secure a two-thirds majority” in the chamber, the minimum required for a constitutional amendment.

If the LDP pushes too hard, the opposition camp may unite and block changes, observers said.

“Constitutional revision will not be a key issue until after the Upper House election,” a medium-ranking LDP lawmaker said. “Recently, the prime minister has been discussing nothing but the economy.”

Some LDP members say the national security legislation has made it less urgent to revise Article 9.

But the LDP hopes to make at least some preparations for the amendment. In an extraordinary Diet session expected to begin soon, it will propose resuming discussions in commissions on the Constitution in both Diet chambers.

Opposition parties are unlikely to accept such discussions.