Abe's security bills clear Japan's lower house despite protests
Tokyo
JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security bills passed Parliament's lower house on Thursday after a night of noisy protests, as his push to expand the role of the military risks further eroding his public support.
The move pits Mr Abe against voters uneasy about any deviation from 70 years of postwar pacifism, even with a more assertive China on their doorstep.
Opposition lawmakers made a series of speeches urging the ruling coalition to change its mind as the final minutes counted down to the vote.
"Prime Minister Abe should admit that he has failed to gain public understanding for the government plan and withdraw it immediately," said Katsuya Okada, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). "There has not been enough debate about what kind of country we want to be."
Major protests in Japan are unusual, and the level of discord reflects deep concern about Mr Abe's changes. Even so, the bills were poised for enactment thanks to his ruling coalition's two-thirds majority in the lower house, which enables it to overrule the upper chamber. With opposition parties too fragmented to take advantage, further falls in Mr Abe's approval rating could spur a rival to take him on in a ruling party leadership election in September.
"There will be an uproar within the ruling coalition," independent political analyst Minoru Morita said of the potential fallout of the legislation. "The Abe administration will get through the crisis, but go into a difficult period."
The bills are based on Mr Abe's reinterpretation last year of the pacifist Constitution and would bolster military ties with the US at a time when Japan is embroiled in a territorial dispute with China. They will also allow the military to defend other countries under certain circumstances.
Media polls show the majority of voters opposed the changes, and disapproval of the Cabinet now surpasses approval.
The biggest protests in recent years were anti-nuclear rallies after the Fukushima plant meltdown in 2011, with one event at a Tokyo park attracting an estimated 170,000 people.
Jun Matsumoto, a lawmaker in Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), backed the bills in a speech before the vote.
"The bills are needed because the security situation around our country is changing dramatically," he said, listing China's opaque military expansion and tensions over disputed islands among the problems Japan faces.
If the upper house refuses to take up the bills, a second vote in the lower house can pass them into law with a two-thirds majority.
"It's too early to tell if this fracas in the Diet will have a lasting impact on the Abe Cabinet's political capital," said Sheila Smith, senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
The changes in security policy are by no means the only challenge facing Mr Abe.
How he handles next month's 70th anniversary of the end of World War II could impact a fragile recovery in ties with China. The approaching restart of a nuclear reactor following the Fukushima disaster is also sparking protests.
Weakness in Japan's exports and production and continued sluggishness in consumer spending after last year's sales-tax hike are increasing the challenges in reflating the world's third-biggest economy. The Bank of Japan on Wednesday lowered its growth outlook for this fiscal year to 1.7 per cent from 2 per cent.
Even Mr Abe's success in winning the right to host the 2020 Olympics has been overshadowed by a controversy over the ballooning cost of the main stadium. Kyodo news reported on Wednesday that the government was considering changes to the venue plan.
A July 10-12 poll by public broadcaster NHK showed Mr Abe's support fell 7 percentage points to 41 per cent. Disapproval jumped to 43 per cent from 34 per cent.Bloomberg
