Shintaro Ishihara, leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), said he believes Megumi Yokota and other Japanese abducted by North Korea are dead and called for revising the pacifist Constitution to allow Japan to threaten to wage war against such countries.

"Circumstantial evidence suggests that Ms. Megumi Yokota and more than 200 other Japanese nationals have been abducted and killed," Ishihara said while campaigning Monday in Tokyo for Sunday's election.

He called for revising the pacifist Constitution, particularly war-renouncing Article 9.