Photo: Protesters in Japan rally against new security bills/PPP Focus
Note: Protests in Japan continued as tens of thousands of people went into the streets in Tokoyo. The protests come as Japan is strengthening its military ties with the United States. Protesters were not only rallying against Prime Minister Abe’s security bill but also against the arrival of the USS Reagan, according to Military.com and Stars and Stripes.
– PopRes
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Thousands of protesters rallied in Tokyo against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s security policy on Monday as the government aims to enact legislation this month that would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.
Led by young people, including members of Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy-s, or SEALDs, the rally drew the leaders of opposition parties, including the Democratic Party of Japan, as well as Kenzaburo Oe, victor of the Nobel Prize for literature.
Protestors rally in front of the parliament building in Tokyo, Japan, on September 14, 2015.
The mass rally in central Tokyo came after a similar protest at the end of last month that its organizers claimed was attended by 120,000 people.
The bills are under deliberation in the Upper House.
A poll carried out over the weekend and published by Asahi Shimbun showed 54 per cent of respondents opposed the legislation against 29 per cent who backed it, and 68 percent saw no need to enact the bills during the current session.
Three-quarters of the respondents stated the talk has been inadequate, consistent with different surveys.
The bills, approved by the lower house of the Japanese parliament on July 16, will broaden the mandate of Japan’s military forces, allowing them to participate in foreign operations in order to protect allies such as the United States even if there was no direct threat to Japan.
The poll also showed that support for Abe’s administration fell to 36 percent, the lowest since he came to power in December 2013.
Toshimi Kitazawa of the opposition Democratic Party said that various recent surveys show that 60 percent of the Japanese people are against the bills, while 30 percent support them.
Abe final week gained a uncommon second consecutive time period as a ruling get together chief, and therefore premier, pledging to retain give attention to reviving the world’s third-largest financial system and deepen debate on revising its pacifist structure.