On Sunday, thousands of people protested outside the Japanese parliament in Tokyo against the new law allowing military deployments abroad for the first time since WWII. The country’s constitution currently only allows Tokyo to engage in warfare in cases of self-defense.
"Despite the vocal public protest, my fear is that the bills will be adopted in the end," Sayuri Guthrie Shimizu, a history professor at Michigan State University, told Sputnik.
Under the legislation package, backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s government will be able to dispatch its defense forces abroad to assist its allies without the need for parliamentary debate or additional laws.
According to Shimizu, the protests do not have the power to affect the government’s decision.
"It’s not dangerous enough to unseat Abe or anything," Shimizu said.
However, according to Shimizu, "the protest would not fade in time but persist into the future in different intensities and configurations."
The lower house of the Japanese parliament has already passed the legislation, currently debated in the upper house.
"Even if the upper house votes down, the ruling coalition alone has the two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives [where the bill will be sent in case the upper house votes it down] that is required to overrule upper house’s vote," Yuki Tatsumi, a senior associate of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center, told Sputnik.
Sunday's rally was one of the largest in recent years, as estimated 120,000 people gathered outside the parliament, demanding Abe's resignation and protection for the peaceful Japanese constitution. The rally is one of a series of demonstrations that have taken place in the country since the lower house passed the legislation.
According to Tatsumi, the protests are "not really dangerous."
Last month, polls conducted by Japanese news agencies and newspapers showed that the supporting for the Cabinet had been sliding down while the disapproval rate was growing. However, Abe’s most recent poll numbers have been showing upward dynamic, according to Tatsumi.
After Japan lost WWII, the government amended its constitution so that the military could not be used to solve international disputes. Japan's current armed forces are called Self-Defense Forces and their functions are severely limited.
