China accuses Japan of threatening regional peace

“This legislation betrays the constitutionalism, pacifism and democracy that Japan has built over the past 70 years since the end of World War II”, Tetsuro Fukuyama of Democratic Party of Japan said, according to Belfast Telegraph.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledges after a censure motion against him filed by an opposition party was rejected during the upper house plenary diet session in Tokyo Friday, September 18, 2015.

On Thursday, rowdy scenes erupted when an upper house panel voted on the bills as opposition party lawmakers surrounded and mobbed the panel’s chairman.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) chats with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (R) during a lower house no-confidence resolution on his cabinet, as the government attempts to pass the security bill at the parliament in Tokyo.

Hosaka says the new security measures that authorize Japan to defend its ally, the United States, also raise concerns that it could become more involved in the Korean Peninsula.

In case Japan faces “a survival-threatening situation”, in which the United States and other countries that have close ties with the nation come under an armed attack by a third country and that poses a threat to the existence of Japan and the livelihoods of Japanese people, Japan now can use minimum necessary force.

Even under the new legislation, Japan’s military will still be more restricted than other countries: parliament will have to approve any deployments, based on strict criteria, and force must be kept to a minimum. Those opposed outnumber supporters by a wide margin in media polls, and rallies against the bills and Prime Minister Abe himself have swelled into the tens of thousands in recent months, unusually large for Japan.

However, the unpopularity of the bills has not been a boon for Japan’s main opposition party.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, who described the passage of the bills as “unprecedented”, said on Saturday that the move forces observers to question if Japan is going to abandon its defensive policy and path of peaceful development.

“Actually, I hope I can work with the Chinese people to establish a harmonious society”, he told Xinhua before the upper house vote.

An anti-Japan protester burns a Japanese military flag with a…

They may have good reasons to take pride in staging a feat to “unbind Japan from the restraints” of the pacifist constitution, but the rosy pictures they paint could hardly dispel domestic qualms that the bills could drag Japan into an unwanted war.

Japan has largely depended on the US for protection since World War II, allowing American troops to be stationed on Japanese soil in return. It is an unlikely prospect he says but given the language of the legislation it opens up a number of scenarios that could lead to unanticipated conflict.