Japan | Panel to vote on military bills amid protests 

In this Aug. 30 file photo, protesters hold anti-war placards in front of the National Diet building during a rally in Tokyo as thousands of Japanese protested a set of security bills designed to expand the role the country’s military

Opposition lawmakers and thousands of demonstrators were staging last-ditch protests in a political showdown yesterday as Japan’s ruling party started a final push to pass security legislation to expand the role of the country’s military.
The bills would allow Japan’s military to defend its allies even when Japan isn’t under attack, work more closely with the U.S. and other allies, and do more in international peacekeeping.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan needs the bills to bolster its defense amid China’s growing assertiveness and to share the global peacekeeping effort. Opponents say the legislation violates Japan’s war-renouncing constitution, while putting Japan at risk of being embroiled in U.S.-led wars.
Opposition lawmakers talked of preventing colleagues from entering the chamber of the committee on the security legislation in the parliament’s upper house, where the bills were to be voted on later yesterday, and proposing a non-confidence vote against Abe’s Cabinet at a subsequent house vote, expected today. They were backed up by thousands of protesters gathering outside the parliament building.
While the bills were being debated in the parliament, new faces were joining the ranks of protesters typically made up of labor union members and graying left-wing activists.
Over the last few months, a group of students has led the protests, which have steadily grown to tens of thousands who fill the streets outside Tokyo’s parliament every Friday and often on weekends.
“Anyone who understands the basic principle of the constitution cannot help but oppose the legislation,” Aki Okuda, a leader of the student group known as SEALDs, or Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracies, told reporters in Tokyo. “It’s ridiculous, and the bills’ legal questions have fueled the people’s anger.”
As the group became influential, Okuda was invited to speak at a parliamentary hearing Tuesday, when he urged lawmakers “to listen to the people’s voices,” and “not make us think it’s absurd to take politics seriously.”
The bills, passed by the more powerful lower house in July, have since been debated in the upper house. Abe’s ruling party wants to have them approved by tomorrow to avoid a swelling of protests during the upcoming five-day weekend. Abe also has promised the U.S. the bills would pass in parliament by this summer.
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.
“We must join our forces and block their ploy,” he said. Mari Yamaguchi, Tokyo, AP