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TOKYO, Jan. 7-- 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 2017 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. | 
