Japan enacts bills easing pacifist constitution's limits on military
Japan's parliament voted into law on September 19 a defense policy shift that could let troops fight overseas for the first time since 1945, a milestone in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to loosen the limits of the pacifist constitution on the military.
Abe says the shift is the biggest change in Japan's defense policy since the creation of its post-war military in 1954.
The legislation "is necessary to protect the people's lives and peaceful way of living and is for the purpose of preventing wars," Abe told reporters after the bills were approved by the upper house. "I want to keep explaining the laws tenaciously and courteously."
The bills, already approved by parliament's lower house, were voted into law by the upper chamber in the early hours of September 19 despite opposition parties' efforts to block a vote by submitting censure motions and a no-confidence motion against Abe's cabinet in the lower house. All were defeated.
A key feature of the laws is an end to a long-standing ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense, or defending the United States or another friendly country that comes under attack, in cases where Japan faces a "threat to its survival".