Japanese lawmakers approved a controversial bill early Saturday that allows the country's military to engage in wars overseas for the first time since the end of World War II.
The controversial security bill, pushed forward by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was passed by a 148-90 vote in the Upper House of the Japanese Parliament.
"The legislation is necessary in order to protect the people's lives and their peaceful livelihood, and it is to prevent a war," Shinzo Abe told reporters, according to Associated Press.
Pacifist opponents in Japan criticized the government's move to change the country's post-World War II pacifist constitution, reported Voice of America. Opposition Democratic Party members scuffled with members of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party during a parliamentary committee meeting over the bill earlier this week.
"This legislation betrays the constitutionalism, pacifism and democracy that Japan has built over the past 70 years since the end of World War II," Tetsuro Fukuyama of Democratic Party of Japan said, according to Belfast Telegraph.
"We should not allow such a dangerous government to continue like this. Prime Minister Abe's security bill is a threat to our legal framework," Democratic Party leader Akira Gunji told Parliament, BBC News reported.
China reacted quickly over the new law, saying that Japan should pay attention to security concerns of its neighbours.
"The legislation's enactment marks an unprecedented move that Japan has taken after World War II," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei in a statement, according to Xinhua news agency.
