No time frame for amending Constitution

August 4, 2017

TOKYO- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that there should be no predetermined time frame for his long-cherished goal of amending the country's constitution, which was drawn up during the US occupation that followed the end of World War II. Abe made the remark at a press conference after launching his new cabinet earlier in the day. The cabinet reshuffle was in response to the recent plunge in his cabinet's approval ratings in the wake of a spate of scandals engulfing his administration.

Since Abe declared in May that he aims to have a revised constitution put into effect in 2020, his ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been working to submit proposals to revise the constitution during an extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, later this year.

"I made the proposal, but I don't mean to proceed with a predetermined schedule," Abe said at the press conference. "I hope that the party will take the initiative (for constitutional amendment) and the Diet will have thorough discussions."

Abe also said he has not decided whether to dissolve the House of Representatives, the Diet's lower chamber, for a snap election within the year.

Earlier on Thursday, Abe reshuffled the LDP executive team, retaining party Vice President Masahiko Komura and Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai in their respective posts and appointing Fumio Kishida, former foreign minister, as chairman of the party's Policy Research Council.

Abe's proposal on constitution amendment "helped stimulate discussions inside and outside our party," Komura said at a party meeting, attended by Abe. "From now on, the cabinet will hopefully prioritize the economy by leaving the issue (of constitutional amendment) to the party," he stressed.

Kishida said at a separate press conference that his cautious stance on rewriting the war-renouncing Article 9 of the constitution has not changed. "I'm now in a position to support the party's work to draw a conclusion after thorough discussions," he added.

"We can't work very slowly, but at the same time we shouldn't hurry to reach a conclusion because it's a very important issue," Nikai said. He expressed the party's readiness to hear a wide range of pubic opinions on the issue of constitutional amendment. Jiji Press