Japan's Abe says poll result shows voters want debate on charter revision

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday called for debate on revising the post-war, pacifist constitution, saying the result of an upper house election the previous day showed it was what voters sought.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition won a solid majority, but together with like-minded allies, fell short of the two-thirds “super majority” needed to begin the controversial process of amending the constitution, never changed since it was adopted after Japan’s World War Two defeat.

Abe has long sought to revise the constitution’s pacifist Article 9 to further legitimize the military, but public opinion is divided.