Japan’s security Bills set to clear Upper House

TOKYO — Japan’s ruling camp passed controversial security Bills at an Upper House panel session yesterday — despite strong protests from opposition lawmakers and voters — paving the way for almost immediate enactment of legislation that could allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War II.

After hours of struggling with the ruling camp, opposition lawmakers failed to block the Bills as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito swiftly put the Bills to the vote and had them approved by a majority.

From the opposition camp, three smaller parties supported the Bills based on their agreement with the ruling bloc earlier this week to ensure a greater role for the Parliament in approving Japanese Self-Defence Forces (SDF) missions overseas.

As part of last-ditch efforts to delay the vote at the special Upper House panel meeting on the security legislation, the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) filed a no-confidence motion against Mr Yoshitada Konoike, the LDP member who chairs the panel. The motion was rejected yesterday afternoon.

Soon after Mr Konoike returned to his seat, opposition lawmakers surged towards him as they realised something was up after ruling party legislators had gathered at the podium to protect the chair.

As the scrum intensified, no final question-and-answer session on the Bills was conducted, and the Bills were put to a vote as ruling party lawmakers still in their seats stood up to signal their support for the legislation.

Designed to expand the scope of the SDF’s overseas operations for a more robust alliance between Japan and the United States, the legislation would enable Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defence, or come to the aid of the US and other friendly nations under armed attack, even if Japan itself is not attacked.

Advocates say the Bills are needed to deal with an increasingly severe security environment facing Japan, such as China’s increasing assertiveness in the regional maritime domain.

They also argue that even if the legislation is enacted, the exercise of collective self-defence will be limited and hence, there will still be constraints on SDF operations.

But critics argue the security policy shift, which marks a major shift in the country’s exclusively defence-oriented postwar security policy, would violate Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution and possibly even drag Japan into American-led wars around the world.

The government and ruling camp want to pass the Bills in the Upper House plenary session today at the latest, given the five-day holiday starting Saturday, and to avoid protests spilling over into the holidays, coalition lawmakers said.

Despite the delaying tactics of opposition lawmakers and street protests, it appears certain that the LDP-Komeito coalition will enact the legislation, as it holds a majority in both chambers of Parliament.

A senior opposition member later said his party would not accept the vote in the Upper House because the ruling bloc had cheated.

“You saw the scene. We do not recognise there was a vote. How can you tell what happened, what the chairman was calling?” said Mr Tetsuro Fukuyama, committee leader of DPJ.AGENCIES