TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made his most emotional appeal yet on Thursday for rewriting Japan’s pacifist Constitution, asking for what he called the country’s “biggest reform since the end of the war.”

In the equivalent of a State of the Union speech to Parliament, the first since his governing party swept national elections in December, Mr. Abe made an impassioned plea for change. At times almost seeming to shout at the chamber, the prime minister said the time had come for Japan to try the same kind of sweeping transformation that it accomplished after its defeat in World War II.

“People of Japan, be confident!” said Mr. Abe, a conservative who has often called for the country to play a more active role in global affairs. “Isn’t it time to hold deep debate about revising the Constitution? For the future of Japan, shouldn’t we accomplish in this Parliament the biggest reform since the end of the war?”

The appeal was the latest in a series of calls for constitutional change by Mr. Abe and his followers in recent weeks, after the killing of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State militant group in the Middle East. Mr. Abe and his supporters have seized on that crisis to urge changes that will probably include rewriting Article 9, which bars Japan from maintaining its own armed forces.