As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe steers the nation away from pacifism, the coming Upper House election is a chance to voice opposition to this new course, according to Kazuo Shii, who heads the Japanese Communist Party.

Japan is on the brink of becoming a "lawless, autocratic country" under Abe, who is pushing for aggressive security laws, nuclear power and other controversial policies, Shii said in an interview with media outlets last week.

"He has become uncontrollable, he's ignored the people's voices" over his past 3½ years in power, Shii said. "And now, all of these policies are falling apart. We need a change in all of these areas."

While Abe is touting the election as an opportunity for the public to assess his Abenomics policies, Shii contends there is a bigger issue at stake: whether to support Abe's long-held ambition to revise, and ultimately supplant, the pacifist Constitution.

Noting that Abe's Liberal Democratic Party compiled a draft constitution in 2012 that called for upgrading the Self-Defense Forces into a full-fledged military, Shii said the draft, if realized, would essentially trample on the war-renouncing Article 9 and enable Japan's use of arms abroad "unconditionally."

"We won't tolerate his effort to change the Constitution for the worse," Shii said.

The JCP chairman also flatly denied Abe's assertion that Abenomics has made great progress.

He said Abenomics has only served to widen income inequality, with real wages dropping and consumer spending on a steady decline over the past two years.

"We should scrap Abenomics and focus on redressing economic disparities," said Shii, who prescribes heavier levies on the rich.

As for his party's own policies, Shii was as adamant as ever that the SDF, which he argues is fundamentally at odds with the Constitution's Article 9, be disbanded eventually, and that the Japan-U.S. security treaty be abolished. The party also opposes Japan's Imperial system.

The radical policies have led the main opposition Democratic Party to balk at Shii's suggestion that the two parties develop their current electoral tie-up — in which they field joint candidates ahead of the July poll — into a coalition government.

Shii is well aware of the strong aversion that persists among the DP leadership to some of the JCP's more extreme policies, but has no plans to pare them back.

"We will not change our policies," he said.

But that doesn't mean a coalition government with the DP is impossible, he added, suggesting that his party can be flexible.

"If we were to form a joint government, there is no need for us to be insistent on our policies. We can set aside our differences and still cooperate based on the things we do agree on," such as the need to protect and preserve the current Constitution and its pacifist values.

Shii, however, also knows where to draw the line.

Asked whether he would ever consider changing his party's name, a constant reminder of its past link to the Soviet-controlled Comintern, a resolute Shii said: "No. Not at all."