Since his big win in the lower house election on Oct. 22, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been talking about proceeding with measures to revise the Constitution, a project that has been close to his heart for most of his political career. However, during the official campaign period he almost never mentioned the word "constitution" in public, even though revision was listed — albeit last, and briefly — as a policy issue in the Liberal Democratic Party's manifesto.
The media are prohibited during campaigns from covering any candidate or party more, or less, than any other candidate or party, so since the election some have gone through Abe's speeches with a fine tooth comb. In an Oct. 27 feature, the Asahi Shimbun analyzed all 75 outdoor public appearances Abe made after he dissolved the Lower House on Sept. 28.
Naturally, no one expected him to talk about the Moritomo and Kake school-related scandals blamed for the deteriorating Cabinet support rate last summer, but Asahi found that Abe also rarely talked about the Constitution. During a speech on Oct. 10 in Sendai he did criticize opposition parties who say the Self-Defense Forces are "unconstitutional" because of war-renouncing Article 9. "The SDF worked so hard and risked their lives during the Great East Japan Earthquake," he said, playing more to voters' emotions than to whatever they felt about the Constitution.