“I have one year and three months left as chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party and I would like to hold a referendum before this deadline,” Abe said during an appearance on the NewsBAR Hashimoto online program, hosted by former Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto.
Abe has sought to add a reference to Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in the constitution to provide legal clarity.
Article 9 of Japan’s post-World War II constitution strictly limits the country’s military capabilities, although Abe has campaigned for years to revise and amend the document. In 2014, the Japanese cabinet adopted a resolution that would permit the country’s troops to engage in combat abroad in the name of collective self-defense.
On Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan’s constitutional right to self-defense would allow the country’s military to strike enemy bases located abroad if no other alternatives were available.