Reeling from scandals and falling public approval ratings, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet cleared a key hurdle in the Diet Monday by winning passage of the fiscal 2007 budget.
With the budget debate over, Abe and the ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito -- can now focus their attention on another priority: a bill to establish procedures for a national referendum on revising the Constitution.
"Abe has inherited the DNA of his grandfather, (the late Prime Minister) Nobusuke Kishi, and declared that the revision of the Constitution is a main goal of his Cabinet," political commentator Hisayuki Miyake said. "In order to put the revision of the Constitution on his political calendar, Abe must first get the referendum bill passed to lay down the procedures."