TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged lawmakers to engage in serious debate about constitutional reform, zeroing in on his cherished yet contentious goal during Friday's opening of an extraordinary Diet session.

With Tuesday's consumption tax hike and a U.S.-China trade war casting a pall on the outlook, Abe said his top priority remains the economy. A strong economy is necessary to ensure a stable social security system in a country facing what Abe sees as its "biggest challenge" -- a graying population with a falling birth rate, according to the prime minister.

During the 67-day Diet session through Dec. 9, Abe looks set to make his case for promoting debate on the Constitution with a reluctant opposition bloc, using a solid win in July's upper house election as leverage. As Japan's ushering in of the new Reiwa imperial era raises the need to consider the future shape of the country, parliament should discuss the Constitution to serve as a "signpost," Abe said. Read more via The Mainichi

Abe shakes up LDP leadership, but retains key party heavyweights

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday appointed Olympics minister Shunichi Suzuki as chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s General Council in a shake-up of the party leadership.

Abe also picked former education minister Hakubun Shimomura as head of the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee, while retaining Toshihiro Nikai as secretary-general and Fumio Kishida as policy chief. Shimomura, who has led the LDP’s panel on constitutional revision, succeeds Akira Amari, who took up the post of chairman of the party’s tax committee.

“Under the new organization, we will strongly push forward as one united party with our long-standing wish to revise the Constitution,” Abe told a meeting of party executives. Read more via Japan Times