1st LD Writethru: Japan's opposition parties making last-ditch efforts against war bills

Japan's five largest opposition parties on Friday filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet at the national Diet's lower house in their last-ditch efforts to delay a vote on a series of security bills possibly later the day in a plenary session of the upper house.

The opposition parties, which group the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Japan Innovation Party, Japan Communist Party, Social Democratic Party and People's Life Party, said that the security legislation violates the country's Constitution.

The motion against Abe's cabinet came after a censure motion against the prime minister filed by the DPJ earlier the day at the upper house.

The motions followed an upper house panel' approval of the government-backed legislation on Thursday and were in an effort to delay the planned vote at a plenary session of the upper house.

The opposition parties said that the new security bills violate the Japanese war-renouncing Constitution and the majority of the Japanese public are against the legislation, 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.

However, since the Abe-led ruling bloc secured the majority seats in both chambers of the national Diet, the motions are likely to be voted down.

In July, the legislation was rammed through the Japanese parliament's lower house 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 in 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 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.

Meanwhile, outside the national Diet building, protesters rallied against the bills, shouting slogans demanding the retraction of the bills and resignation of the prime minister.

The security legislation opponents, including college students and housewives, hold demonstrations around the Diet building on a daily basis. On Aug. 30, more than 120,000 people rallied here against the legislation while hundreds of similar demonstrations were held in other parts of Japan, involving about 1 million participants. Endi