Japan’s parliament has voted to allow the military to fight overseas for the first time since the end of World War Two 70 years ago.A vote on the new law was delayed for several hours as the opposition tried to stop the measure coming into force.Outside, demonstrators rallied in a last-ditch show of protest. Many Japanese are attached to the pacifist provisions in the constitution which banned fighting overseas.The bills have already passed through the government-dominated lower house. The government says that the changes in defence policy are vital to meet new military challenges such as those posed from a rising China. Masaaki Yamazaki, the president of the upper house, said the bills were passed with 148 lawmakers voting in support and 90 against. More than 200 hours have been spent deliberating the legislation, the Japan Times reported, and its approval by parliament fulfils one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s long-held ambitions. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has an absolute majority in parliament and has been able to pass the deeply unpopular measure regardless of the delaying tactics of the opposition and the outcry of thousands of people taking to the streets of Tokyo. In the process he has been accused of acting like a dictator and exploiting the democratic process for decidedly undemocratic ends. Abe’s government has a track record of denying Japanese atrocities during WWII, to the great annoyance of neighbouring Korea and China, and this latest measure continues a trend of history-defying hyper nationalism. However, the proudly pacifist Japanese people have turned against Abe and his popularity ratings are tanking. The anger and frustration of the Japanese is understandable as they are still living with the memory of the terrible war, a war which ended in disaster for them, and do not want to shed more blood in foreign countries after the devastation wrought by their forces on their neighbours. Now they face the prospect of sending their soldiers to far-off lands to fight the questionable wars of US-led coalitions. Abe’s party has used the threat of a rising China and North Korea to argue for the bill, but Japan has survived just fine so far without investing heavily in a military and has instead prospered economically and technologically by focusing on those fronts. This turn towards militarism bodes poorly for the stability of the region and can set off a globally undesirable arms race with China. Japan’s legacy as a beacon of pacifist hope is at stake.
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