In a move that could break a longtime political taboo, a suprapartisan group of lawmakers decided Tuesday to submit a bill to create a research panel in both chambers of the Diet to review the 51-year-old Constitution for possible amendments in the future.
The bill will be presented to the Diet by the end of the current 150-day regular session, which ends in mid-June. Further details of the bill will be discussed as early as next week among secretaries general of parties whose members belong to the group.
With the decision, a long-held dream of conservative lawmakers to amend the Constitution to "make it suitable for the needs of today's society" seems to have taken a step closer to reality.