If indeed the Abe administration is to seek the amendment of Article 9, that effort needs to be accompanied by thorough discussions on what should be the SDF's mission and role.

It is time to come into the open to consider the costs and benefits — psychological, diplomatic and financial — of revising Japan's Constitution.

The 2012 draft constitution remains a heavy burden on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pursuit of revising the nation's supreme law while he's in office.

The Japan Conference represents a new approach to a civil movement based on traditional right-wing values.

The LDP's draft constitution contains elements that would move Japan toward illiberalism and autocracy if it was adopted.

If there is one factor that could help the Abe administration overcome the constitutional millstone against modernizing Japan's military defense, it would be Obama administration support. Japan is the only power that can block China from gaining ascendancy in the region.

The question of whether the minimum voting age for participating in Japan's referendums should be lower than the voting age for other elections remains unsettled.

Conservative hawks who are close allies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe express irritation over the failure of the move to amend the Constitution to have gained as much momentum as they had hoped.

Remarks like those of Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso indicating that Nazis knew how to revise a sticky constitution risk creating a weird international image for Japan.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's popularity continues — the latest Nikkei and TV Tokyo survey shows his approval rating at 66 percent, his Liberal Democratic Party's victory in the Upper House election seems highly probable, "Abenomics" is still on course, and even medium-term economic growth ...