2nd LD Writethru: Japan's ruling bloc rams through controversial war bills in lower house

Japan's ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday rammed through a series of controversial security bills in the all-powerful lower house of the nation's Diet amid strong public opposition, marking the most significant overturn of the nation's "purely defensive" defense posture.

Katsuya Okada, chief of Japan's major opposition party of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), criticized in the last presentation at the lower house plenary that the ruling bloc's efforts to push through the bills disregarded public willingness and despised the parliament.

Kazuo Shii, head of the Japan Communist Party, slashed the bills as they destroyed the Article 9 in the Constitution and the pacifism Japan has pursued in the past 70 years, adding that the legislation is the worst one that violates the Constitution.

Major opposition parties including the DPJ, the Japan Communist Party and the Japan Innovation Party skipped the vote procedure after their statements in the plenary session. The bills were backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its small coalition partner of the Komeito Party.

After the vote in the lower house of Japan's bicameral Diet, Abe told reporters at his official residence that it is necessary to pass the bills so as to protect Japanese people, adding the ruling camp will continue their efforts to gain public understandings during the debate in the upper house.

The bills will be handed to the upper house for discussion. The ruling camp enjoys two thirds of seats in the lower house, meaning that if the upper house vetoes the bills, they could also be enacted in a new poll in the lower house by securing over two thirds of support.

According to current Diet agenda, the bills are expected to be enacted as late as Sept. 27 if the upper house does not put them to vote 60 days after the bills are being handed to the upper house.

The bills, which are considered in violation of the country's war-renouncing Constitution by about 90 percent of constitutional experts here, will enable Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to engage in armed conflicts overseas and help defend others even if Japan is not attacked, or exercise the right to collective defense.

The nation's pacifist Constitution bans the SDF from combating abroad and using the right to collective defense, but the war- renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution will no longer serve as a constriction on Japan's use of force.

Opponents said the bills will increase the risk to the SDF to be dragged into armed conflicts and will endanger Japanese people' s right to live in peace.

The rammed passage of the bills followed an over 100,000-strong protest around the Diet building after the bills were passed in a special committee at the lower house on Wednesday.

The latest poll released Tuesday by the Asahi Shimbun showed that about 56 percent of Japanese population opposed the bills, while only 26 percent showed their support. About 80 percent of Japanese people said the government does not sufficiently explain on the bills. Endi