The Liberal Democratic Party has kicked off discussions among its lawmakers on revising the Constitution, aiming to hammer out a draft amendment in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stated desire to see it enacted by 2020. Their push for an amendment and the time frame they have set do not reflect any grave and pressing problem that the nation can only resolve through constitutional revision. The rush by Abe and his party for an amendment appears to mirror their hope to get the Constitution changed at a time when they can — while the LDP and its pro-amendment allies retain the two-thirds Diet majority needed to put an amendment to a national referendum. They are putting the cart before the horse in dealing with the nation's supreme law.
Abe clarified his hope for an amendment in a video message shown on May 3 — Constitution Day — to the participants of a rally organized by a conservative group calling for constitutional revision. Singling out the war-renouncing Article 9, the prime minister proposed that a new third clause be added to the article to clarify the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces.
Okiharu Yasuoka, head of the LDP headquarters promoting constitutional revision, has called for accelerating the work to compile an amendment draft that focuses on four points — revising Article 9 to clarify the SDF's legal status, giving the government emergency powers in the event of a national crisis, making education, including higher education, free of charge and prohibiting the creation of Upper House electoral districts that cover two or more prefectures.