Japan’s Upper House Committee Passes Security Bills

Japan’s parliament prepared Thursday for another battle of wills as opposition lawmakers persisted in blocking ruling-party bills aimed at increasing the military’s influence, a highly sensitive issue in a country that takes pride in its pacifist constitution.

Meanwhile, three other opposition parties are expected to support the bills after they agreed Wednesday with the LDP and Komeito to ensure through Cabinet approval a greater role for the Diet in approving SDF dispatches overseas as a way to put restraints on SDF operations.

A committee vote in the upper house today was taken without an audible announcement, caused opposition lawmakers to surge to the podium as the measure passed.

Upper House committee chairman Yoshitada Konoike was surrounded by lawmakers as he forced a vote on the legislation.

However, Masahisa Sato, a senior ruling party lawmaker who has promoted the bill, hit back after it was approved by the committee, saying: “This is legislation necessary to protect lives and the happiness of Japanese people”. Earlier they tried to pass a vote of no confidence against the committee chairman. As the scrum intensified, other ruling party members still in their seats stood up to signal their support for the legislation, though there did not appear to have been an audible announcement of what they were voting on.

They now go to the floor of the House of Councillors for final passage, probably late Friday assuming the opposition throws up more roadblocks to delay the inevitable.

The security bills would revise 10 existing laws and give the military more latitude to defend its people and interests, to participate in collective self-defense and defend allies like the United States.

Japan’s post-World War Two constitution bars it from using force to resolve conflicts except in cases of self-defence.

The bills have been approved by the lower house. “No Abe!” – a message to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe – who has grown increasingly unpopular in recent months for doggedly pushing the controversial security bills through the Japanese parliament.

Despite the ruckus in parliament, Mr Abe is nearly guaranteed to succeed, because his coalition has a majority in both houses.

While political wrangling continues in the upper house, regular members of the public are continuing to show their disproval of the government’s plans to allow Japan’s Self-Defense Forces an expanded operational scope at home and overseas , including potentially being involved in combative U.S.-led missions, which could see Japanese troops dragged into combat zones and expected to take offensive action for the first time since WWII, with mass protests around the country, the most visible being at the National Diet building itself in the heart of Tokyo. Opinion polls show the vast majority of the public oppose them.

Katsuya Okada, head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said it was “outrageous” for Abe’s ruling block to rush a vote on the legislation that has split the nation.

Protest from the public against the security bill planned to be passed on Wednesday in the parliament has delayed the proceedings.

“I am disappointed that we had vote in the panel that way, but I felt we had exhausted from our debates, and we just can’t keep talking forever about this”, he said.