As opposition lawmakers tried to shout it down, the ruling bloc of Japan’s lower house of parliament rammed two controversial security bills through a special committee.  The legislation fundamentally changes the post-war military’s role in the world, allowing it to take on more overseas missions in “collective self-defense” with the US.

The Diet is usually a pretty boring place, free of most of the shouting and jeering that marks the British Parliament, or the fisticuffs occasionally seen in places like Taiwan and Ukraine. 

But on Wednesday, opposition lawmakers mobbed committee chairman Seiichi Hamada of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and tried to halt the voting procedure.  Shouting and in some cases even pleading, they tried to stop Hamada from taking the vote.  But members of the ruling LDP Party and Komeito allies stood up to show their support for the bills, and Hamada declared the bills passed.  Both bills are expected to pass through the full Lower and Upper houses.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to reinterpret the 1955 pacifist constitution to allow military adventurism is seen as belligerent by an increasing number of voters.  Over the weekend, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper released a poll showing the cabinet’s approval numbers underwater – 39 percent of those asked approved of Abe’s cabinet, 42 percent disapprove.

More media figures are feeling the confidence to speak out against Abe’s militarism.  Academy Award-winning animation direction Hayao Miyazaki (“My Neighbor Totoro”, “Princess Mononoke”, “Spirited Away”, “The Wind Rises”) this week contributed some of the strongest criticism.

“I presume that PM Abe wants to leave his name in history as a great man who changed the interpretation the constitution,” Miyazaki said.  “But I think it’s despicable.”

He made it clear that Abe should use the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II to make it clear to the world that Japanese militarism caused great destruction.

“(Japan’s) war of aggression into China is definitely something we should not have done.  I believe (Japan) should clearly say that (the country) inflicted enormous damage on China and express deep remorse over it,” Miyazaki said.