Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday that now is the time for the Japanese people to take a major step toward creating a new nation, and that debates on revising the pacifist Constitution, enhancing security policies and reforming the education system are on the list of key objectives for his administration.
In a New Year's message, Abe said he thinks it necessary to deepen discussions on revising the Constitution to deal with changing times, as nearly seven decades have passed since it was adopted.
In recent years, the focus of discussions on changing the Constitution has been the war-renouncing Article 9.