While nearly 60 percent of Japanese people think the country's Constitution needs be revised, 55 percent are opposed to constitutional revisions while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in office, a Kyodo News survey showed Friday.
On war-renouncing Article 9 of the supreme law, 49 percent said there is no need to change it, compared with 45 percent who said otherwise, according to the survey conducted ahead of the 70th anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution on Thursday.
The figures indicate Abe faces headwinds in his drive to rewrite the Constitution, which he sees as a product of the U.S.-led occupation after Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945. With Abe having expressed eagerness to change Article 9, the figures also suggest a sense of wariness among the public.