Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday urged the Liberal Democratic Party to accelerate the debate on revising Japan’s pacifist Constitution, in what appears to be a last-minute bid to appeal to the conservative wing of the party ahead of an upcoming party leadership election.
During a meeting of an LDP panel on constitutional reform, Kishida stressed the need to explicitly mention the Self-Defense Forces in the Constitution, as well as establish a clause allowing the extension of lawmakers' terms in the event of a national emergency— two of the four pillars of the party's reform plan.
“The era of merely talking about the Constitution is over. Now it’s time to walk the walk and start thinking about how to make it happen,” Kishida told the panel, underlining the importance of a “realistic” approach to constitutional reform that can win the support of a majority of the public.