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Ministry condemns Japan’s new laws as threat to regional peace
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CHINA has accused Japan of threatening regional peace after Tokyo passed laws clearing Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War II, saying that Japan should learn profound lessons from history.
Japan’s ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pushed the laws through in the early hours of Saturday morning after days of tortuous debate that at times descended into scuffles in parliament.
For the first time in 70 years, the new laws will give the government the power to send the military into overseas conflicts to defend allies, even if Japan itself is not under attack.
China’s defense ministry said on Saturday that the laws had “aroused grave concern among its own citizens, neighboring countries in Asia and international society.”
South Korea called on Japan to remember the need for transparency in implementing its new defense policy “while maintaining the spirit of the pacifist constitution,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.
North Korea’s foreign ministry issued a strongly-worded statement accusing Japan of being “obsessed with an anachronistic ambition for reinvasion.”
“Japan’s militarist moves are posing a grave threat to peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world,” it added.
Abe has faced bitter opposition at home over the changes, which have seen his popularity slump, and opposition lawmakers have vowed to do everything in their power to fight them.
Public approval for Abe’s cabinet has fallen to 38.9 percent from 43.2 percent in mid-August, with a majority of respondents opposing the security bills, according to a Kyodo News poll published yesterday.
“This is not an end,” said Renho, a senior lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan. “Let’s make it the beginning of the beginning.”
Mizuho Fukushima, a lawmaker from the opposition Social Democratic Party, told a crowd of more than 10,000 who gathered outside parliament during the debate: “Abe’s cabinet criminals. Let’s get them out of here.”
Abe was unable to muster support to amend the pacifist constitution and instead opted to “re-interpret” the meaning of self-defense in order to push through the new laws, but the move sparked a groundswell of opposition.
A hardcore group of some 300 protesters gathered outside parliament on Saturday, calling for the legislation to be abolished.
“Our battle will never end. This is just the beginning,” said Keisuke Yamamoto, an organizer from one of the citizen groups that have been leading weeks of rallies. “We will resort to every possible measure, including bringing the case to the courts... We can’t let this movement fizzle out now.”
Legal scholars have argued that the legislation violates Japan’s pacifist constitution, imposed by the US after World War II.
Susumu Murakoshi, chairman of the 36,000-strong national bar association, criticized the government for going against the will of the people and pledged to see the changes abolished.
The laws have “left a black stain on the history of Japan as a constitutional democracy,” he said in a statement.
National broadcaster NHK said respected constitutional scholar Setsu Kobayashi, from Keio University, is already planning to muster 1,000 lawyers to file a challenge to the legislation in the Tokyo district court.
The laws will likely take months to come into effect and the supreme court could urge lawmakers to amend them.
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