TOKYO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Almost half of Japanese voters oppose amending the postwar pacifist Constitution under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government, a Kyodo news survey showed Thursday.
In the two-day telephone survey from Wednesday, 47.1 percent opposed Abe's drive for Constitutional revision, while 38.8 percent supported his drive to revise the supreme law. Abe reiterated his determination to do so during a press conference following the leadership shake-up on Wednesday.
With two years left of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential term, Abe is expected to step up work toward achieving his long-held goal of amending the Constitution. Despite Abe's push, only 5.9 percent saw amending the war-renouncing Constitution as a priority, according to the survey.
The nationwide survey also shows that 50.9 percent of respondents viewed the cabinet reshuffle positively, while 31.4 percent did not.
Regarding the government's plan to raise the consumption tax to 10 percent in October from the current 8 percent, 81.1 percent said they were either "worried" or "worried to a certain extent" about a possible negative economic impact from the tax hike, while 17.2 percent were not.
