Japan's Political Situation vs.the Constitutional Amendment

The year 2019 marks the seventh anniversary of Shinzo Abe's return to office,alongside the administration's obsession with Constitutional amendment.During the 25th House of Councillors selection in July,Prime Minister Abe changed the rules applied for the four national elections in 2012,wrote the Self-Defense Forces into the Constitution and the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP)convention,and deliberately made the amendment a focal point of controversy in his election campaign.However,when the results of the election came out,the pro-amendment forces,with the LDP at their core,didn't reach the two-thirds majority threshold required for Constitutional revision.Going forwards,the Abe-led Liberal Democratic Party will strive to consolidate Constitutional amendment forces in the National Diet,hoping to cross the majority threshold,and at the same time to coerce opposition parties to comply with passing LDP draft revisions to the Constitution in the National Diet as soon as possible,in order to submit these to national referendum.In the meantime,preparatory works for this referendum are being carried out through the use of political resources to mobilize public support.Whether Abe can reach the political objective of Constitutional amendment during his current term of office and how the Constitutional issue in Japan will play out is sure to attract global attention.