Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers questions from the news media at the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters at 11:15 p.m. on July 10. (Yosuke Fukudome)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed to speed efforts to hold a referendum and revise the Constitution after pro-revision lawmakers retained their requisite two-thirds majority in the Upper House election.

During a live TV Asahi Corp. broadcast on July 10, as his Liberal Democratic Party candidates continued to win seats, he underscored his commitment to amending the 1947 Constitution.

“We should tackle this huge challenge with courage,” Kishida said.

The Constitution has never been amended, although this has been a longtime goal for the LDP.

The LDP is proposing four changes. They would add clauses to enshrine the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces, allow the Cabinet to limit civil rights in a national emergency, expand educational support and prohibit combining two or more prefectures to create an Upper House electoral district.

Referring to these four items during the TV Asahi interview, Kishida suggested that he is in favor of proceeding on a given measure once it gains support, rather than waiting for a consensus to emerge for all of them.

“I intend to proceed with the revision process with any one of the proposals once approval is won after deepening discussion on them,” he said. 

He made similar remarks during an interview with TV Tokyo Corp. and other media.

Prior to the election, Kishida did not make his stance clear on constitutional revision.

Two opposition parties--Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People--join the ruling coalition, made up of the LDP and its junior partner, Komeito, as the pro-revision bloc in the Upper House.

Together, they have more than the necessary two-thirds majority of 166 seats in the Upper House after the election. Pro-revisionists also have a two-thirds majority in the Lower House.

Kishida is facing growing pressure to advance the revision effort from within his own party and from Nippon Ishin, which is often described as more conservative than the LDP.

Ichiro Matsui, head of Nippon Ishin, called for a road map for revision when he appeared on a show run by the public broadcaster, Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), during the election campaign.

“Kishida should show us a clear timetable,” he said. “Otherwise, the discussion on the constitutional revision will just get deferred.”

Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the LDP, echoed a similar view on an NHK program on the night of July 10.

“It is important to form a consensus among pro-revision parties over which of the four proposals should be dealt with first and on what schedule,” he said.

Although the four parties agree on the need to touch on the Constitution, they differ widely on what should be amended and how, raising the prospect for more political turbulence before the revision process can start.

This is not the first time that the stage was set for revisions.

Pro-revision forces held a two-thirds majority for some time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in office in 2016.

But the Diet discussion on the revision had long stalled as opposition parties heavily criticized Abe over the matter.

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