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Opposition party files censure motion against Japanese PM over security bills

Xinhua, September 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Japan's largest opposition party - the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) on Friday filed a censure motion to the parliament's upper house against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over a series of controversial security bills that the Abe-led ruling bloc eyed to vote at the chamber later the day.

The DPJ move came after an upper house panel approved the government-backed legislation on Thursday, in an effort to delay the planned vote at a plenary session of the upper house.

The DPJ said that the new security bills violate the Japanese war-renouncing Constitution and the majority of the Japanese public are against the bills, which, if enacted, will allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to engage in armed conflicts overseas even if Japan is not attacked.

The Japanese pacifism supreme law bans the SDF from using force abroad and from exercising the right to collective self-defense.

The legislation was rammed through the Japanese parliament's lower house in July amid strong opposition from the public and major opposition parties.

Rowdy scenes erupted on Thursday when the upper house panel voted on the bills as opposition party lawmakers surrounded and mobbed the panel's chairman.

The latest poll by the Asahi Shimbun, a major daily newspaper of the country, showed that the support rate for the prime minister's cabinet plunged to about 36 percent, the lowest level since Abe returned to the power in late 2012. The disapproval rate for the cabinet stayed at about 42 percent.

The poll released on Tuesday also showed that 68 percent of the respondents opposed to pass the controversial bills during the current Diet session through Sept. 27. About 54 percent said that they opposed the bills, compared with 29 percent who showed their support. Endi