Constitutional revision no easy feat for Abe

The election to Japan's upper house on Sunday has acquired added significance because the result would be critical to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's attempts to amend the country's pacifist Constitution.

Constitutional amendment, the amendment to Article 9 in particular, has been a controversial issue in Japan since the end of World War II. Article 9 renounces war, and notes that the prohibition on the use of force by Japan is a clear constitutional rule that the Japanese government has to follow. It also prohibits the maintenance of armed forces and denies Japan the right of "belligerency".

And it is precisely to change Article 9 - which would allow Japan to have a regular military and become a normal country - that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made constitutional amendment his goal.