The prospect of a constitutional amendment has been making headlines after proponents of revising the supreme law gained a two-third majority in both chambers of the Diet following the July 10 Upper House election. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's top political priority for the remainder of the year is not amending the Constitution, but holding talks with Russia to conclude a peace treaty and resolving the territorial dispute over the Russian-occupied islands off Hokkaido.

Abe has long maintained that the only way to resolve the territorial row with Moscow would be for him to talk directly with President Vladimir Putin. He has thus instructed officials of the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry to secure as many opportunities as possible for one-on-one talks with Putin during his overseas tours this fall. It has already been decided that Abe and Putin will meet in the Russian port city of Vladivostok during the Eastern Economic Forum starting Sept. 2 and again on the sidelines of the Sept. 4-5 Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou, China. He looks forward to meeting with Putin again in late September during the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

The two governments are also in talks for Putin's visit to Japan in December on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration, which ended the state of war and restored diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Moscow. During his Upper House campaign in Sapporo last month, Abe said he was determined to push forward with the talks on concluding the peace treaty by inviting Putin to Japan "this year."