The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has decided to pursue a plan proposed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to amend Article 9 of the nation’s war-renouncing Constitution and add an explicit reference to the Self-Defense Forces.

Abe, who is eager to make the first-ever revision to the 1947 Constitution written during the U.S.-led postwar occupation, has called for clarity about the legal status of the decades-old SDF.

Veteran LDP lawmaker Hiroyuki Hosoda, who heads the party’s constitutional reform task force, told reporters after a plenary meeting on the issue Thursday that the group “will work toward the direction” of seeking a revision in line with Abe’s idea.