The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition was set to forcibly pass the contentious state secrecy bill into law as early as Thursday night, after it rammed the legislation through the Upper House Special Committee on National Security earlier on the day.
The chairman of the committee abruptly motioned for a vote on the bill, and ruling bloc lawmakers voted, while opposition lawmakers tried to block it by surrounding and shouting at him.
"The committee chairman did not even mention we would vote on it when we had a meeting before the session," said Tetsuro Fukuyama, an Upper House member of the committee from the Democratic Party of Japan. "Again they leveraged the power of numbers. I am beyond angry."