Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s party won a landslide election last month with a platform that included transforming the Japanese Self-Defense Force into a formal military. But meddling with the constitution could give opposition parties an unwelcome opportunity to demand their own adjustments.

A senior Japanese official told the Washington Examiner that moving to change Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which states that Japanese “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained,” would be like opening “Pandora’s Box” for debate on other constitutional changes demanded by opposition parties.