The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's draft constitutional amendment has become so ill-reputed that it is now being treated as a "historic document." Still, the 2012 draft remains a heavy burden on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pursuit of revising the nation's supreme statute while he's in office. The LDP's inability to effectively shelve the draft as invalid continues to keep its coalition partner Komeito as well as opposition parties on guard over the issue.

The draft amendment was essentially penned by Yosuke Isozaki, deputy head of the LDP's Constitutional Reform Promotion Headquarters, while the LDP was out of power and before Abe returned to the party's helm in September 2012. The problem with the document was that it did not receive full scrutiny of Abe, who, in his pursuit of constitutional revision, entrusted Isozaki to work out its details. Meanwhile, Sadakazu Tanigaki, the LDP president at the time the draft was unveiled, was also indifferent to the text.

What particularly raises alarm among constitutional scholars and opposition parties about the LDP draft is its provision that would enable the state to restrict certain human rights in times of emergency. It also calls for deleting Article 97, which upholds the inviolability of the fundamental human rights, on grounds that the Western concept of God-given human rights does not sit well with Japanese traditions — yet another indication of the draft's precarious sensitivity toward human rights issues.