Japan: Opponents of security bills make last stand

TOKYO

Opponents of security legislation that will see Japan expand the scope of operations by its troops overseas are making last-ditch efforts to stop the government-supported bill becoming law before a self-imposed deadline of late Friday evening.

Scuffles broke out in Japan's parliament Thursday, with opposition members and the ruling coalition pushing and shoving each other, hours after a no-confidence motion against the meeting chairman was introduced as a delaying tactic.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-Komeito alliance has the votes to pass the legislation in the upper house of Japan’s bicameral parliament despite opposition efforts. The bills cleared the lower house in August.

Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in various places in Japan's capital Tokyo to protest passage of the propose bills, claiming that they will inevitably embroil Japan in unwanted foreign wars.

The opposition in parliament debated various parliamentary tools that if could use to delay, if not necessarily prevent, passage of the legislation. They included a peculiar Japanese filibuster known as the “ox walk” in which members slow march to the ballot box.

Meanwhile, the government has reached out to some of the Diet’s tiny parties seeking their support by promising to address their concerns in a post-approval addendum. The government doe not need their votes but it goes some way to meeting the complaint that the government is “steam-rolling” the legislation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration notes that the debate over the proposed bills has consumed about 200 hours in both houses of parliament, and that, it says, should be enough to show that it has been thoroughly vetted.

The purpose of the legislation is to enable the cabinet’s 2012 decision to interpret the constitution in a way that allows Japan to engage in collective defense with formal allies like the United States or close partners such as Australia or the Philippines.

Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution, written by Americans shortly after the end of World War II, prohibits the country from having armed forces or using force to settle international disputes.

The opposition parties argue that the 200 hours of debate were not sufficient either for parliament itself or to persuade the general public of the need for the changes in Japan’s defense posture.

Public opinion polls have shown that around 60 percent of the Japanese public opposes the legislation with around 30 percent in favor. This number has not changed since the bills were first introduced early summer.

The legislation gave birth to a public pressure group made up mostly of students called the Student Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy, especially as the voting age in Japan is being lowered from 20 to 18 years of age.

Japan’s students have been very passive since the protests that engulfed the country in 1960 over the adoption of the original security treaty. Their new power might be tested next summer in the scheduled elections to the upper house.

It is generally considered that Abe was a poor advocate for the proposed legislation. His attempts to provide concrete examples of how things would be different under the legislation have been unpersuasive.

Also, Abe is mistrusted because it is widely known that he would like to scrap Article 9 from the constitution and make Japan a “normal nation,” that is one that is not so much legally constrained from using force.

The opposition arguments range from the sweeping – that the legislation is unconstitutional – to more particular complaints that it lacks sufficient “brakes” to prevent Japan from being sucked into conflicts it might want to avoid.

The proposed changes are strongly backed by the U.S., which sees them as essential to upgrading the security alliance in the face of growing threats from China and North Korea.

Earlier, the two countries revised their guidelines for military cooperation based on the assumption that the security bills would become law, which may seem like jumping the gun.

In his address to Congress last spring, Abe promised to pass the laws this summer.