Abe needs opposition help to change constitution

Tokyo

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday that he aimed to get a two-thirds majority from his ruling bloc and like-minded opposition parties at an Upper House election this summer to enable him to revise the constitution. He has made clear that he wants to revise the US-drafted pacifist constitution, but formal amendment requires approval by two-thirds of both Houses of Parliament and a majority in a referendum.

Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner, the Komeito party, already command a two-thirds majority in the Lower House, but only hold a simple majority in the upper chamber. "It will be very difficult for the ruling bloc alone to win a two-thirds majority," Mr Abe told a TV news programme. "Besides the LDP and Komeito, I aim to form a two-thirds majority with those positive and responsible people who are thinking of a constitutional revision."