Japanese stage large rally to protest controversial security bills

Tens of thousands of people have marched on Japan’s parliament in protest at the potential approval of a set of controversial security bills that the protesters say will put the country on the warpath.

According to reports, some 45,000 people attended the massive demonstration outside the National Diet, Japan’s parliament, in the capital, Tokyo, with many of the protesters holding up placards reading “No war” and “Scrap war legislation.”

The anti-war protesters also called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to step down.

Barricades were set up to block the crowd from proceeding, leading to some scuffles, which caused the security forces to eventually take them down.

From post-war pacifism to war itself?

The proposed legislation would allow Japan’s army, the so-called Self-Defense Forces, to be deployed abroad in combat operations for the first time since World War II. It would enable the country to use its troops to protect allies such as the United States even if there is no direct threat to Japan.

Critics say the bills would alter Japan’s pacifist constitutional status forever.

“Abe’s government is currently not listening to the voices of the people, and many things are being pulled back to the past in a bad way, so I can’t keep quiet, So I came here because I don’t want my kids or grandkids to be in a situation like that of during war or before war,” said 69-year-old protester Yasuko Yanagihara.

The bills have already been passed by the legislature’s lower house; Abe’s government seeks to push it through the upper house – where Abe’s ruling bloc has a majority – later in the week.

However, the opposition has pledged to do all in its power to prevent the ratification of the bills.

There have been growing protests across the country against the move, with one the similar events bringing about 120,000 in the front of the Diet last month.

An opinion survey, conducted over the weekend and published on Monday by Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun showed that 54 percent of the Japanese public disagrees with the bills.

‘Non-existent threats’

Interviewed by Press TV on the issue, author and journalist Gregory Clark said the Japanese government wants to increase Japan’s “military posture and, to a large extent, has created threats, which do not exist; threats mainly from China; but they also talk about North Korea.”

“The Japanese people are turning out to be surprisingly conservative in the sense they don’t want to change things and they think the government is pushing too hard and insistently to change the laws and even maybe to change the constitution.”

The legislation allows the country to “join in wars that have been created by America and say that America is under threat,” he said.

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