Tens of thousands of citizens opposed to the Abe administration’s security bills protested at the Diet on Friday as opposition lawmakers made a failed last-minute bid to prevent the enactment of laws that would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since the war.

With the police on heightened alert, more than 40,000 people angered by the way the Upper House special committee approved the bills the previous day surrounded the Diet building, organizers said.

Similar rallies were also held elsewhere across the nation, including in Sapporo, Nagoya and Osaka.