Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated today his call for revising the postwar Constitution, saying Japan can no longer proceed with major changes to its administration system, relations between central and local governments, and the basic framework for foreign and security policies under the current charter that was written 60 years ago and has remained unamended, reported Japanese news agency KYODO. ''We face the need to review the Constitution,'' Abe said in a statement issued today on the Constitution Day national holiday and the 60th anniversary of the Constitution's coming into force. Abe's statement sharply contrasts with one issued on the 50th anniversary a decade ago in 1997 by then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto that vowed to commit Japan to making ''active contributions to the peace and prosperity of the international community under the philosophy of the Constitution.'' Abe's statement was issued in Tokyo in his absence, though he is due to return to Japan later Thursday from a weeklong visit to the United States and the Middle East. Public debates on constitutional revisions have long focused on the war-renouncing Article 9 which says, ''The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.'' -- SPA
