Inciting public protests and a walkout by opposition lawmakers, Japan’s lower house of parliament passed a set of controversial security bills on Thursday, paving the way for the country’s military to potentially fight abroad for the first time since World War II.
The move offered further evidence of the pacifist nation’s march toward militarism, with one protester telling NBC News: “This is going to make it easier to go to war. It’s wrong.” According to news outlets, hundreds of protesters stood outside the parliament building on Thursday, chanting anti-war slogans during the debate and vote. Some held banners that read: “No to war legislation!”
“By upholding our constitution, I think we’ve earned the respect and trust from the world… and its something that has been carefully protected for 70 years. If Japan becomes another regular nation which goes to war like the United States, Japan will lose its singular brand.”
—Norikazu Hamada, protester
According to Irish Times reporter David McNeill in Tokyo, most members of Japan’s opposition parties walked out of the chamber in protest before the vote on Thursday afternoon. Some shouted “shame” and held signs calling the bills “unforgivable.”
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose ruling coalition put forth the bills, wants Japan’s armed forces to join in military activities abroad and defend allies under attack—principally the United States—a policy Abe has dubbed “proactive pacifism.”
The New York Times reports that “Abe has presented the package as an unavoidable response to new threats facing Japan, in particular the growing military power of China. He seized on the murder of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State militant group in January as an example of why Japan needs to loosen restrictions on its military, suggesting that the military might have rescued them had it been free to act.”
But legal scholars counter that Japan’s constitution explicitly disavows war. Article 9 of the nation’s constitution, which came into effect on May 3, 1947, states: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”
Opposition lawmaker Yukihisa Fujita told CNN this week that the change will “damage the way Japanese people and country is viewed. It will damage the view of Japanese as a diplomatic nation.”
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