Japan's upper house erupts into chaos as opposition lawmakers seek to delay war bill vote

Japan's opposition lawmakers on Thursday succeeded in delaying a vote on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 's plans to see controversial security legislation enacted which will allow the scope of the nation's Self Defense-Forces to be expanded globally in the biggest post-war shift seen in 70 years.

Chaotic scenes erupted in an upper house committee on Thursday morning as Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition sough to hold a final debate on the security legislation ahead of a vote to enact the bills into law later in the day or on Friday.

Having failed to hold the final debate as initially planned Wednesday evening, due to opposition party lawmakers barricading themselves around the upper house chamber and physically preventing what was supposed to be a Q&A session from taking place, in scenes reminiscent of those in the lower house ahead of Abe ramming the bills through in July without sufficient debate with opposition parties or explanation of the bills to the public, tensions gave way to chaos as the standoff between parties continued Thursday morning.

Following the final debate being adjourned in the early hours of the morning due to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)-led lawmakers' outroar and last ditch attempts to see the bills scrapped or significantly delay their enactment, as the LDP failed to negotiate any common ground to proceed with the opposition camp with the contentious vote, Yoshitada Konoike, who chairs the upper house panel on the security legislation, was mobbed in the committee meeting by opposition lawmakers on Thursday.

While the LDP-led ruling bloc still plans to have the bills enacted by the end of the week, despite the legislation being condemned by lawyers, constitutional experts and scholars as thwarting the nation's pacifist Constitution and thus violating Japan's Supreme Law, which decrees that Japan must not maintain a combative military force or use force as a means to settle international disputes, sources close to the matter said Thursday morning that some LDP members in the upper house are now nervous about their commitment to enact the bills this week.

Among other DPJ heavyweights, Yukio Edano, secretary general of the DPJ said Wednesday that there is absolutely no doubt that history will prove that it is a monumental error for Abe and the ruling bloc to enact bills by force or by exploiting their voting powers in both in chamber of parliament that run contrary to the nation's constitution. He added that parties including the DPJ that stood opposed to the bills would do everything in their power to block the bills.

Such moves, which have raised tensions Thursday in the upper chamber and rattled the nerves of the ruling coalition who though the enactment of the bills would be elementary due to their majority voting power in both chambers of parliament, will likely include the DPJ delaying the upper house vote for as long as possible by potentially boycotting the vote, and, if the ruling camp proceed to enact the bills, submitting to parliament's lower chamber a non-confidence motion against Abe's cabinet and a censure motion against Abe himself in the upper house.

The ruling camp, in which case, may then be forced to use the 60-day proviso, meaning that if the upper house fails to vote on the legislation within a 60 day period, the bills will be sent back to the lower house to be voted on.

And while the ruling coalition can use its two-thirds majority in the more powerful lower chamber to enact the bills, the move would grant the opposition camp more time to regroup and further plan how to derail Abe's plans to remilitarize a reluctant Japan.

While political wrangling continues in the upper house, regular members of the public are continuing to show their disproval of the government's plans to allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces an expanded operational scope at home and abroad, including potentially being involved in combative U.S.-led missions, which could see Japanese troops dragged into combat zones and expected to take offensive action for the first time since WWII, with mass protests around the country, the most visible being at the National Diet building itself in the heart of Tokyo.

Around 35,000 protestors, according to the demonstration's organizers, amassed throughout the night Wednesday, with numbers also beginning to swell Thursday, as riot police buses failed to contain the numbers of demonstrators within the police designated zone.

The demonstrators are united in their call for Japan's constitution to be upheld, the unconstitutional war bills to be scrapped and for Abe to step down as prime minister for his continued bellicose ways and unilateral method of governance that saw his cabinet unilaterally reinterpret key clauses of the Constitution before ramming the publicly repelled war bills through the lower house in July. Enditem