Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday his long-held goal of amending the pacifist Constitution will be one of the key issues in the Upper House election this summer.
In his first news conference of 2016, Abe pledged an all-out effort to maintain the ruling bloc's majority in the Upper House.
"We will call for amending the Constitution during the election campaign as we've done before," Abe said. "Through such calls, I'd like to deepen public debate" on the issue.