国际英语新闻:Spotlight: Japan's Abe rallies LDP lawmakers' efforts towards constitutional amendment ami

TOKYO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday rallied members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to bolster efforts to amend the nation's pacifist postwar constitution.

During a gathering of LDP lawmakers, the Japanese premier underscored the LDP's prominent founding principle of revising the pacifist charter for the first time since it took effect in 1947.

"Let us make a big step toward revising the constitution, which is a huge responsibility for us," Abe said at the LDP's headquarters in Tokyo, referring to the contentious plan as a "historic mission" of the party.

The Japanese leader has less than two years in his post as LDP president and has stepped up his legacy-led campaign to amend the nation's Supreme Charter for the first time since World War II.

But Abe, in his eighth year in office since returning to power in December 2012 and now Japan's longest-standing leader, is facing an uphill struggle in his plight to specifically reference Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in the constitution, a move purportedly aimed at removing any legal ambiguity regarding the SDF.

For the prime minister to achieve the goal, he will need to garner the support of opposition parties, who remain unequivocally opposed to amending the Constitution in this regard, as well as that of the Japanese public, the majority of whom cherish Japan's long-held pacifist stance.

Amending the Constitution would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of Japan's bicameral parliament and a majority in a national referendum thereafter.

With opposition parties concerned that the move is aimed at expanding the military scope of Japan's SDF beyond that of mere defense and a public vehemently opposed to a shift in the nation's pacifist stance, the success of Abe's determination in recent weeks to alter Japan's defense posture is a doubtful one, sources close to the matter said Tuesday.

Massive nationwide protests by regular citizens and opposition party members against contentious security legislation steamrolled. More recently, mounting public demurral was punctuated by the LDP and other factions intent on amending the charter falling short of winning the requisite number of seats to smoothly push ahead with calling for the amendment and taking it to the public for a simple majority referendum, in last July's upper house election.

Japan's recent plan to dispatch SDF personnel and hardware to the Middle East amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, meanwhile, has also seen opposition parties' and public disapproval of the move and broader constitutional amendment intensify, with protests recently held outside the prime minister's office.

In addition, according to recent media polls, the majority of Japanese citizens are opposed to the dispatch, which is a harbinger of continued resistance to constitutional amendment, both in parliament and by regular peace-loving citizens here, experts on the matter said Tuesday.