MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Japanese parliament voted a package of security bills into law in September, paving way toward the first deployment of Japan’s military abroad since World War II.
"I would have deferred until the next Diet [Japanese parliament] session," The Japan Times daily quoted Koizumi saying in an interview with a monthly magazine.
The former prime minister argued his fellow Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member "appears to be in a rush" and "always gets things done forcefully."
Thousands Japanese citizens protested the new law, which scraps Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and allows the country’s Self-Defense Force to be sent overseas as a belligerent.
Abe succeeded Koizumi for a year in 2006, then regained office in 2012.
