Off the wire
• Iran eyes better ties with neighbors after nuclear deal: president  • Feature: Kenyan islands with footprint of Chinese expeditionary voyages  • Latvian education minister stays in office despite controversy over youth festival  • Afghan president welcomes Iran nuclear deal  • Global report ranks Rwanda among most efficient gov'ts in the world  • IMF adviser takes over management of Bulgarian National Bank  • Oral vaccination of wild animals proves effective in controlling rabies: EU agency  • S. Africa reiterates commitment to nuclear energy  • AIDS targets of millennium development goal exceeded: UNAIDS  • Turkey to train Iraqi police forces  
You are here: 　 Home

Japan's ruling bloc to put security bills to panel vote Wed., 3 opposition parties to skip

Xinhua, July 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Japan's ruling bloc on Tuesday decided to put the controversial security bills to a vote at a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday, and eyed their approval at the lower house as early as Thursday, local media reported.

However, three opposition parties including the major Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) plan to skip the vote to protest.

In a meeting of the lower house special committee on security legislation, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party proposed holding a concluding question-and-answer session on the bills Wednesday.

However, the opposition parties remained deeply divided with the ruling bloc on the security-related legislations and called for more deliberations of the bills that would allow Japan's Self- Defense Forces to fight abroad even if Japan itself is not attacked.

In protest, three opposition parties -- the DPJ, the Japanese Communist Party and the Japan Innovation Party -- plan to skip the panel vote Wednesday.

DPJ's acting President Akira Nagatsuma told the meeting: "(The committee) should let go a vote on the 15th and continue questions and answers next week."

Goshi Hosono, chairman of the Policy Research Committee of the DPJ, criticized the ruling camp's move. "We will never allow a vote on the 15th. We will never let the government-sponsored bills pass (the Diet)," Hosono told reporters.

As the ruling coalition holds a majority in both chambers of the Diet, it is likely to push the bills through the lower house as planned despite strong oppositions from both the public and lawmakers, according to Japan's Kyodo News Agency.

The LDP and Komeito hope that after sending the bills to the House of Councillors for further deliberations, they will be passed by the upper chamber and enacted into law by the end of the ordinary Diet session that has been extended to Sept. 27.

If passed, the new legislation will put into effect a landmark Cabinet decision in July last year that reinterprets the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, or coming to the aid of the friendly nations under armed attack even if Japan itself is not attacked. Endi