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TOKYO: Japan’s parliament was set to vote to resume a disputed
mission backing the US-led “war on terror” Friday, resorting to
a tactic unused for half a century to override months of opposition
resistance.
The United States
and other Western nations have urged Japan to restart the mission,
under which the officially pacifist Asian nation provided fuel on
the Indian Ocean to coalition forces engaged in Afghanistan.
The opposition
argues that Japan should not be part of “American wars” and used
its newfound control of the upper house to block legislation to
renew the deployment, ending it in November.
Embattled Prime
Minister Yasuo Fukuda has submitted legislation to restart the
mission and urged the opposition to support it, saying the world’s
second largest economy needs to play a greater role in global
security.
The main
opposition Democratic Party of Japan refused to budge. It cooperated
with smaller parties and voted down the bill Thursday at the foreign
and defense affairs committee of the opposition-ruled upper house.
Making a last
plea to the opposition to back the bill, Fukuda told the committee:
“It is very important to show to other countries that Japan is
eager to cooperate for global peace.”
“Japan should
play its due part to avoid facing the accusation that Japan is a
free rider depending on other countries’ activities for peace,”
he said.
Following the
committee decision, the full upper house is expected to reject the
bill at a plenary session on Friday.
But Fukuda’s
coalition still enjoys an overwhelming majority in the more powerful
lower house and has said it will move immediately to pass the bill.
Japan’s 1947
Constitution allows the lower house to approve a bill in a second
vote by a two-thirds majority even after the upper house rejected
it.
According to a
parliamentary spokesman, the provision has been used only once
before—for a law regulating motorboat racing in 1951, a year
before Japan regained its sovereignty from the US occupation.
The endgame in
the long controversy comes as Fukuda struggles to reverse sliding
poll numbers following a raft of scandals.
He took over in
September after his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, quit following an
election defeat and his failure to renew the Afghan mission.
The opposition
had stalled the bill since the lower house sent it in November,
preferring instead to focus on a series of scandals and pushing for
an early general election.
But it was forced
to act as the bill would on Friday automatically return to the lower
house 60 days after it was submitted to the upper chamber.
Fukuda promised
US President George W. Bush in November to work to restore the
mission, Japan’s main contribution to the “war on terror”
launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The opposition
has argued that the mission violates the pacifist Constitution and
that Japan should only take part in missions explicitly under the
United Nations umbrella.
-- AFP
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