Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday reiterated calls for rebooting long-stalled parliamentary debate on the revision of Japan's post-war Constitution, saying he wants to see a "significant rebirth" of the nation in 2020.

Speaking at a Tokyo event, Abe touched on his self-imposed goal of amending the charter by 2020 — a controversial timeline he unveiled in a surprise announcement on May 3, or the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-drafted supreme law.

"2020 is the year when we hold the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games. I want that year to mark a significant rebirth of Japan," he told a gathering organized by a Jiji Press-affiliated public corporation in Tokyo.