by Our Foreign Desk

OPPOSITION MPs walked out in protest yesterday as Japan’s parliament voted to allow the military to fight overseas.

The vote in the House of Representatives — the lower house of the National Diet — came a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition overrode protests to force the Bills through committee.

Hundreds of public protesters gathered outside the Diet for a second day, holding banners reading: “No to war legislation!”

Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its partner Komei Party easily passed the legislation despite the boycott since they control two-thirds of the 475 seats in the House.

Opponents say that the legislation violates Article 9 of Japan’s post-war constitution which renounces war “as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”

Having previously failed to amend the constitution, Mr Abe has settled for a “reinterpretation” which would allow the armed forces to be deployed overseas in defence of Japan’s allies, including the US.

The vote was viewed with concern in neighbouring China, where State Councillor Yang Jiechi met Japanese National Security Adviser Shotaro Yachi yesterday.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged Japan to stick to its pacifist principles.

“It is fully justified to ask if Japan is going to give up its exclusively defence-oriented policy or change the path of peaceful development,” she said.

She urged Japan to “refrain from jeopardising China’s sovereignty … or crippling regional peace and stability.”