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In 2015,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍 晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...
and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party promoted legislation, passed on 19 September 2015, despite some public opposition, to allow the country's military to participate in foreign conflicts, overturning its previous policy of fighting only in self-defense. Since the
Japanese constitution The Constitution of Japan (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , Hepburn: ) is the constitution of Japan and the supreme law in the state. Written primarily by American civilian officials working under the Allied occupation of Japan, the constitution ...
allows the Japanese military to act only in self-defense, the legislation reinterpreted the relevant passages to allow the military to operate overseas for "collective self-defense" for allies. The legislation came into effect on 29 March 2016.


Background

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is a clause in the national Constitution of Japan outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. The Constitution came into effect on 3 May 1947, following World War II. In its text, the state formally renounces th ...
prohibits use of military force internationally. On 15 May 2014, an advisory panel formed by Abe recommended that Article 6 be reinterpreted to allow a broader use of military power. On 1 July, the government announced that it had devised a policy dubbed "collective self defense" to allow it to use armed force to defend its allies. Abe had originally proposed to give the military even more leeway, but resistance from lawmakers in both parties of the governing coalition led to softening of the language. With Abe's coalition a majority in both houses of parliament, the language was expected to be passed into law later in the year. In February 2015, Abe said that he planned to begin work to amend Article 9 after the 2016 parliamentary elections. Abe cited the beheading of two Japanese hostages by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
(commonly known as ISIS) in his goal of allowing Japan's military to intervene overseas to protect Japanese citizens.


Legislative history

On 26 May 2015, the
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
, the lower chamber of the
National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...
, began debate on a package of eleven bills, granting the military the power to engage in foreign combat in limited circumstances It is called the "Peace and Security Preservation Legislation" by its sponsors. Debate in the Diet had been scheduled to end in June, but a final vote was later delayed to September. On 16 July 2015, the House of Representatives passed the legislation, the final version of which allowed the military to provide logistical support to allies overseas as well as armed support in circumstances when inaction would endanger "the lives and survival of the Japanese nation." The vote was passed on the strength of the majority coalition of LDP and
Komeito , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalitio ...
lawmakers; members of the opposition boycotted the vote in protest. After passage of the bill in the House of Representatives, the
House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...
, the upper house of the National Diet, debated the bill for two months. It passed in committee on 17 September in a contentious vote in which opposition lawmakers attempted to restrain the committee chairman physically. Then, it moved to the full house for a final vote. Early in the morning on 19 September, the bill passed the full house after a delayed vote in which opposition members used various delaying tactics to draw out the process. In an effort to delay passage until after the
Silver Week is a new Japanese term applied to a string of consecutive holidays in September, occurring only in certain years. In 2009, the term gained popularity, referring to the unusual occurrence that year of a weekend followed by three Holidays of Jap ...
holiday,
Yukio Edano is a Japanese politician who served as the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan from its formation in 2017 until 2021. A member of the House of Representatives in the Diet since 1993, he served as Chief Cabinet Secretary and ...
of the
Democratic Party of Japan The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016. The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic Part ...
spoke for 104 minutes (having planned to speak for four hours) in support of a no confidence motion against the cabinet, and
Tarō Yamamoto is a Japanese politician and former actor, who is the founder and current leader of the anti-establishment political party Reiwa Shinsengumi. Yamamoto served as a member of the House of Councillors from 2013 to 2019 and was a candidate in the 2 ...
of the
People's Life Party The was a list of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan that merged with the Democratic Party for the People on 26 April 2019. It had 2 out of the 475 seats in the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives, and 3 ...
attempted to delay voting by walking very slowly to the ballot box.


Effects

The legislation has been effective since 29 March 2016. One of the first applications of the legislation was to authorize the Self-Defense Forces peacekeeping team in
South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...
to aid UN or foreign countries' personnel under attack in the country. While the legislation is expected to allow Japanese and US forces to work more closely together, such as by forming integrated naval task forces to repel an invasion of Japan, Defense Minister
Gen Nakatani is a Japanese politician who was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency (now Japan Ministry of Defense) in the first cabinet of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2001-2002 and was appointed as the Minister of Defense by former ...
denied that Japan would always come to the aid of the US, and Prime Minister Abe specifically ruled out the possibility of extending SDF support for the coalition fighting the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
. It is reported that Tokyo is sending JGSDF officers to participate with the
Multinational Force and Observers The Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) is an international peacekeeping force overseeing the terms of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The MFO generally operates in and around the Sinai peninsula, ensuring free navigation through ...
in April 2019 by using the new law as a basis.


Public opposition

The legislation was controversial within Japan. According to some polls conducted in July, at the time of the legislation's debate in the House of Representatives, two thirds of the Japanese public opposed the bills. A protest on 16 July drew an estimated 100,000 people to the
National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...
building. Later protests in September ahead of the House of Councillors vote drew crowds of 10,000 to 30,000. The Abe governments's approval rating fell below its disapproval rating after the House of Representatives passed the legislation in July 2015 and again after it finally approved it in September. A slight majority of poll respondents in September thought that Japan's deterrent capabilities would not be strengthened by the legislation. Much opposition to the legislation centered on its alleged questionable constitutionality. Repeated surveys of experts in Japan's constitution showed that more than 90% of those surveyed believed it was unconstitutional, and in June,
Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...
professor Yasuo Hasebe, in an address to the Diet with two other constitutional scholars, said that it would "considerably damage the legal stability" of Japan. After its passage, it was expected to be challenged in court, although Japan's legal system has rarely ruled against the government in security matters. A revision of the Japanese constitution to revise Article 9 would require a national referendum, which perceived current public opposition to Abe and the legislation made it thought to be unlikely to succeed in the short term. In defense of the bills,
Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...
professor Akira Momochi argued that the legislation was in keeping with the
United Nations Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...
, saying that the right to self-defense is "a given for international laws, and that supersedes national laws."


See also

*
Coalition of the willing The term ''coalition of the willing'' refers to an international alliance focused on achieving a particular objective, usually of military or political nature. Usage *One early use was by President Bill Clinton in June 1994 in relation to possib ...
– Japan's military was involved in the conflict in Iraq *
Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group The Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group
Retrieved on December 5, 2008.
or al ...


References


External links


Japan's Fistfights and Foreign Wars
by Angela Carlton / Midwest Diplomacy
Yuki's Take / Security legislation points to a bigger problem
By Yuki Tatsumi / Special to The Japan News (''
The Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...
'') {{commons category, 2015 Japanese military legislation 2015 controversies 2015 in Japanese politics 2015 in law 2015 in military history Japanese defence policies Controversies in Japan Japanese legislation Legal history of Japan Military history of Japan Overseas deployments of the Japan Self-Defense Forces Human rights in Japan