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Support rate for Abe's Cabinet dives about 10 pct points amid strong protest against war bills

Xinhua, July 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

The supporting rate for the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet tumbled about 10 percentage points from 47.4 percent in June to 37.7 percent, the latest poll said Saturday, immediately after his move of ramming through a series of security bills in the nation's lower house on Thursday.

While the disapproval rate for his government surged to 51.6 percent from 43.0 percent in the previous month, said the poll conducted by Japan's Kyodo News from Friday to Saturday.

Meanwhile, the survey showed that some 73.3 percent of respondents said they do not support the forced way the security bills were passed, compared to 21.4 percent that said they support it.

About 68.2 percent showed their opposition against the enactment of the bills in the current Diet session lasted to September, while about 24.6 percent said they hope for the enactment.

The bills, if enacted, will allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to engage in wars overseas even if the country is not attacked, marking the most significant change in the country's defense posture -- purely defensive defense -- since the end of World War II.

Overwhelming majority of Japanese constitutional experts said the bills violate the country's war-renouncing Constitution that bans the SDF from using forces overseas or exercising the right to collective self-defense.

The ruling coalition led by Abe pushed the bills through the all-powerful lower house Thursday and the bills are handed to the upper house waiting for a vote in the chamber.

According to Japanese law, if the upper house failed to vote on the bills within 60 days or vetoed the bills, they could be also enacted after gaining two thirds of ballots in a new vote in the lower house. The ruling camp happened to secure over two thirds of seats in the lower house.

On Saturday, some 5,000 protesters holding banners that read"no to Abe's politics"gathered in front of the parliament building in downtown Tokyo in a move to show their opposition against Abe's runaway policy.

From Wednesday to Friday, about 180,000 demonstrators, including the retired, salary people and students, rallied around the Diet building to protest the bills'rammed passage in the lower house.

Japan's neighboring countries like China and South Korea, victims of Japan's wartime atrocities, already expressed their concerns over the bills'passage and urged Japan not to jeopardize regional peace and stability. Endi