2nd LD Writethru: Controversial security bills passed in Japan's lower house committee amid strong opposition

A series of controversial security- related bills proposed by Japan's ruling bloc were rammed through a special committee of Japanese parliament's lower house Wednesday noon, paving the way for a vote for the bills at the full chamber later.

Opposition lawmakers in the panel held banners reading"no allow to Abe's politics"and tried to disturb the passage of the bills, which are considered widely as unconstitutional.

The ruling camp, which groups Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its small partner of the Komeito Party, is reportedly to vote on the bills in the all-powerful lower house on Thursday.

The ruling camp maintains two thirds of seats in the lower house in the Japanese bicameral Diet. According to Japanese law, if a bill was passed in the lower house but was vetoed by the upper house, the bill could still be enacted after securing over two thirds of votes in a new poll in the lower house.

Recent polls by Japanese media showed that the majority of Japanese population are against the security legislation and about 90 percent of Japanese constitutional experts see the bills unconstitutional.

The bills, if are enacted, will allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to play a greater role by engaging in armed conflicts overseas and help defend others even if Japan is not attacked, or exercising the right to collective self-defense.

But the Japanese pacifist Constitution, especially the war- renouncing Article 9, clearly bans the SDF from combating aboard and using the collective defense right. Abe's administration unconstitutionally reinterpreted the Constitution so as to lift the restriction.

About 1,000 Japanese protested outside the parliament building in downtown Tokyo when the panel passed the bills. Endi