The bill is expected to go before the parliament on Friday.
After Japan lost WWII, the government amended its constitution so that the military could not be used to solve international disputes. Japan's current armed forces are called self-defense forces and their functions are severely limited.
The government-endorsed bill on international peace assistance is part of Japan's effort to overhaul its security legislation. It will empower Tokyo with providing logistic support to its military allies. If adopted, the law will become permanent, meaning the government will not need to seek the parliament's mandate every time it dispatches self-defense forces overseas.
The legislative package on national security includes 10 amendments to the existing self-defense laws. The key provision will allow Japan to to send its armed forces abroad on various occasions.
The legislation essentially allows Japan's self-defense forces to come to the aid of its allies when there is a threat to the country's existence, in the case of a military provocation, as well as to defend Japanese nationals abroad and secure their release from foreign captivity.
http://sptnkne.ws/k8P
14/5/15
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Japan Cabinet Endorses Bills to Allow Greater Defense Role ...
ReplyDeleteJapan's Cabinet endorsed a set of defense bills Thursday that would allow the country's military to go beyond its self-defense stance and play a greater role internationally, a plan that has split public opinion.
Hundreds of citizens rallied outside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office, calling the bills “war legislation” that turn Japan toward militarism. They say the move would tarnish nearly 70 years of efforts by Japan to regain international trust and identity as a pacifist nation.
After its defeat in World War II, Japan renounced war under the U.S.-drafted constitution that bans the use of force as a means of settling international disputes.
Abe and his government say that stance leaves Japan vulnerable as China asserts itself in the region and that Japan should be better prepared to defend itself and help more in international peacekeeping.
To appeal to the pacifist point of view, the bills' names include “peace and security” and “international peace support.”.....AP.......http://www.voanews.com/content/ap-japan-defense-bills/2767216.html
14/5/15
A series of controversial security- related bills proposed by Japan's ruling bloc were rammed through a special committee of Japanese parliament's lower house Wednesday noon, paving the way for a vote for the bills at the full chamber later....
ReplyDeleteOpposition lawmakers in the panel held banners reading"no allow to Abe's politics"and tried to disturb the passage of the bills, which are considered widely as unconstitutional.
The ruling camp, which groups Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its small partner of the Komeito Party, is reportedly to vote on the bills in the all-powerful lower house on Thursday.
The ruling camp maintains two thirds of seats in the lower house in the Japanese bicameral Diet. According to Japanese law, if a bill was passed in the lower house but was vetoed by the upper house, the bill could still be enacted after securing over two thirds of votes in a new poll in the lower house.
Recent polls by Japanese media showed that the majority of Japanese population are against the security legislation and about 90 percent of Japanese constitutional experts see the bills unconstitutional.
The bills, if are enacted, will allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to play a greater role by engaging in armed conflicts overseas and help defend others even if Japan is not attacked, or exercising the right to collective self-defense.
But the Japanese pacifist Constitution, especially the war- renouncing Article 9, clearly bans the SDF from combating aboard and using the collective defense right. Abe's administration unconstitutionally reinterpreted the Constitution so as to lift the restriction.
About 1,000 Japanese protested outside the parliament building in downtown Tokyo when the panel passed the bills.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/932186.shtml
15/7/15