Japan appears to be edging ever closer to a referendum on its pacifist constitution, after a realignment of parliamentary forces delivered the supermajority needed to put the change to a public vote.For nearly eight decades, Article 9 of the 1947 constitution – drafted under Allied occupation and long treated as untouchable – has prevented Tokyo from formally maintaining a military with “war potential”.That article has outlasted every previous attempt to change it. But Japanese conservatives now believe Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has what her predecessors lacked: the numbers, the public mood and the political will to finish the job.Takaichi swept to a landslide election victory in the House of Representatives in February, with her pro-amendment allies also now commanding more than two-thirds of seats in the Upper House“Momentum is building once again,” Tsutomu Nishioka, a visiting professor at Reitaku University and a senior figure in the conservative Japan Institute for National Fundamentals think tank, told This Week in Asia.Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has been pushing to revise Article 9 of the country’s constitution. Photo: KyodoNishioka has watched the debate for decades and believes the conditions today are unlike any that preceded them.