ese
National Diet on 18 September 2015 during a debate in the
House of Councillors shortly before the Japanese military legislation was passed in the early hours of 19 September.
Shinzo Abe established the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security in 2007 during his
first government. The panel recommended taking measures to allow Japan to exercise the right to
collective self-defence in 2008. This right is ascribed to all states by the
UN Charter, but the Japanese government had previously considered its exercise impossible under Japan's existing legal framework. Permitting collective self-defence would enable Japan to mobilise the
Japan Self-Defence Forces to assist an ally that had come under attack. The
House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the
National Diet, began debate on the legislation on 26 May 2015. 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." After passage of the bill in the House of Representatives, the
House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet, debated the bill for two months. 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 holiday,
Yukio Edano of the
Democratic Party of Japan spoke for 104 minutes (having planned to speak for four hours) in support of a no confidence motion against the cabinet, and
Tarō Yamamoto of the
People's Life Party attempted to delay voting by walking very slowly to the ballot box.
Public opposition 's
National Diet on Friday 18 September 2015 during the debate in the
House of Councillors shortly before the legislation was passed in the early hours of 19 September. A
Zengakuren banner is visible in the middle of the image. 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. 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 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 professor Akira Momochi argued that the legislation was in keeping with the
United Nations Charter, saying that the right to self-defense is "a given for international laws, and that supersedes national laws." == Provisions ==