The bills, which had already passed through the government-dominated lower house, were agreed with 148 lawmakers voting in support and 90 against.
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Japan’s government has used its majority in the Upper House of Parliament to get the security bill passed.
Speaking in Parliament on Friday, Akira Gunji of the opposition Democratic party, said: “We should not allow such a unsafe government to continue like this”. Abe’s party has used the threat of a rising China and North Korea to argue for the bill, but Japan has survived just fine so far without investing heavily in a military and has instead prospered economically and technologically by focusing on those fronts.
New Japanese laws reversing the nation’s status as a pacifist nation have been met with skepticism, however USA experts say there is little reason to expect the Self-Defense Forces to be used overseas any time soon.
Japan also holds competing claims with China to the Senkaku islands, as they are known in Japan, or the Diaoyu islands, as they are called in China.
Many see the constitution’s anti-war clause as a defining aspect of the national character and are proud of their seven decades of pacifism.
Yang says it’s reasonable for the global community to doubt the real intention of Japan, as Shinzo Abe on one hand cleansing the country’s wartime history and denying its aggression, while on the other hand reinforcing amendments and change to Japan’s security policy.
(Japanese) “The Peace and Security laws are necessary to protect the people’s lives and peaceful way of living and is for the goal of preventing wars”.
The poll was conducted after Parliament enacted new security laws early Saturday aimed at expanding the role of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF) overseas.
Japan’s new security bills not only broke Japan’s promise to the world after World War II, but also betrayed its own people, formerly protected by a pacifist constitution.
Q: Opponents say the change will drag Japanese troops into US-led wars in the Middle East. Is that likely?
“Japan is like the 42-year-old kid still living in the basement of the USA “, Henry said.
Outside parliament, demonstrators rallied in a last-ditch show of protest.
The new legislation will put into effect a landmark Cabinet decision in July past year that reinterpreted the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
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Supporters of the measures, which are backed by Washington, insist they are essential for the defence of Japan and its regional allies, and will permit greater involvement in peacekeeping activities around the world.
