Tens of thousands of Japanese protest controversial security bills
Tens of thousands of Japanese have held a protest rally in the capital, Tokyo, to oppose controversial security bills that could allow the country’s army to engage in overseas combat for the first time since World War II.
Some 120,000 people participated in the demonstration outside Japan’s parliament on Sunday, chanting slogans like “No to war legislation,” and “Scrap the bills now.”
The contentious bills, approved by the lower house of the Japanese parliament on July 16, will broaden the mandate of Japan’s military forces, allowing them to participate in foreign operations in order to protect allies such as the United States even if there was no direct threat to Japan or its people.
The opponents of the bills, which have been proposed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, are concerned that they would undermine seventy years of pacifism as Tokyo has been barred from combat except in self-defense under a 1945 constitution.
Abe and his supporters, however, say Japan should increase the extent and power of its army to deal with potential threats from regional countries that are expanding their military and nuclear capabilities.
The bills must now be passed in the upper house of the parliament, where Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition has the two-thirds majority required for their adoption.
Public polls show many of the Japanese are against the bills and their approval.
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