News / More

Japanese students go on hunger strike over security bills

Friday, 28 August 2015 8:57 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 28 August 2015 8:57 AM ]

A woman listens to a speech as she holds a placard reading “scrap security bills” during a rally in Tokyo, August 26, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

A group of Japanese students has staged a hunger strike to protest against the controversial security bills that would give the country’s military greater roles overseas if adopted.

The group of Tokyo University students began their hunger strike Thursday afternoon in front of the parliament to denounce the new defense and security draft bills.

The students, who spent their first night on the street in the Nagatacho district, said a “direct and tough approach” was required to block the bills, which are currently being hotly debated in the parliament.

Shotaro Kimoto, 19, one of the group members says his fellow hunger strikers will hold off food until they reach their “physical limit.”

“(A hunger strike) is an act of risking one’s life... but I thought I should express my opposition to these bills more directly,” said Kimoto, adding, “If parliamentary debate stops, then we have achieved our goal.”

The bills, which have already been passed in the lower house of Japan’s parliament on July 16, could pave the way for Japanese troops to go to war abroad for the first time since World War II, even if there is no direct threat to Japanese people.

Japan’s security bills must now be passed in the upper house of the parliament, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition has the two-thirds majority required for its adoption.

Opponents are concerned that the new bills would undermine seventy years of pacifism, as Japan has been bound by its current constitution since 1945.

Hundreds of lawyers and scholars hold placards reading “violation of the constitution” and “scrap security bills” during a rally in Tokyo, August 26, 2015. (Photo AFP)

Abe and his supporters, however, say Japan should increase the extent and power of its army in the face of what he calls potential threats from other countries like China and North Korea.

Many in Japan back Article 9 of their postwar constitution, which rejects the use of offensive force to wage war or resolve international disputes.

Meanwhile, China and South Korea have criticized the new security bills, with Seoul urging Japan to “contribute to regional peace and security” and calling for transparency in Japan’s defense policy discussions. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying earlier urged Tokyo to “stick to the path of peaceful development.”

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk