ABSTRACT
This chapter examines why Prime Minister Abe could not achieve his goal of revising Japan’s Constitution during his term of office, particularly the proposal to enumerate the Self-Defense Forces in Article 9. One reason is that Abe failed to lay the groundwork necessary to convince more conservative factions within the LDP, which wanted more radical revisions, or his coalition partner, Komeito, which prioritized other policies. The other reason is that, as a result of spending political capital on the Peace and Security Law and the Kake and Moritomo scandals, Abe lost the momentum to engage centrist Diet members and independents who were skeptical about constitutional reform.
