Tokyo, Nov. 3 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Constitution, which on Tuesday marked 80 years since its promulgation, is at a watershed moment, with the ruling bloc leaning toward initiating the process of revising the supreme law for the first time ever.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its Japan Innovation Party ally are seeking to advance procedures for the Diet, the country's parliament, to propose an amendment to the Constitution, after the LDP and the JIP won far more than two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives, the Diet's lower chamber, in February's general election.

Still, efforts to build consensus between the ruling and opposition forces on constitutional revision have made little progress, and national debate on the issue has not become active.

Under a constitutional clause, support from at least two-thirds of all members of each Diet chamber is required for the parliament to propose constitutional revision. In contrast to its overwhelming control of the Lower House, the ruling bloc currently lacks a majority in the Senate, the upper chamber.

The current Constitution, based on the principles of popular sovereignty, respect for fundamental human rights and pacifism, was established through a revision of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, known as the Meiji Constitution, following the end of World War II. It was promulgated on Nov. 3, 1946, and went into effect on May 3, 1947.

The original document to promulgate on Nov. 3, 1946, the Japanese Constitution, with the signature and seal of then Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, on the right side, photographed at the National Archives of Japan in Tokyo in April 2017

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]