Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated his eagerness to amend the Constitution in his New Year's news conference. He also said on NHK that he will seek to get his ruling coalition and other forces that support changing the nation's supreme law to win a two-thirds majority in the Upper House as well — which will be needed to initiate a constitutional amendment that would be put to a national referendum. The Upper House election this summer will indeed be a major opportunity for the nation to choose whether to transform or maintain the basic principles of the postwar political regime.

The constitutional amendment sought by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party is raising alarm bells that it could ruin the basic principles of constitutionalism and liberal democracy, and not just because of the content of the security laws enacted last year or the way they were drafted and legislated. Recent attempts by the Abe administration and private organizations close to the prime minister to step up pressure on the mass media also indicate that those currently in power do not understand the importance of freedom and diversity of ideas and opinions.

These days TV broadcasters increasingly tend to refrain from taking critical positions on political and social issues. It has surfaced that three journalists who have notably defied such trends and tried to discuss various issues from independent positions will be quitting their roles as newscasters or anchorpersons on their programs at the end of March.