Sunday shoppers in Tokyo could be forgiven for wondering if they had been transported to Tibet or Myanmar as a man climbed atop a pedestrian crosswalk, voiced his reason to the crowd via megaphone and set himself ablaze.

Self-immolation as political protest is almost unheard of in developed nations. The middle-aged man, identified only by the family name Yamashiro, said igniting himself was the only way to show Prime Minister Shinzo Abe his anger at a plan that some see as violating the spirit Japan's pacifist constitution.

While extreme, Yamashiro's fury isn't uncommon. One day later, thousands demonstrated outside Abe's residence against this "reinterpretation" of a constitution that he lacks the votes to amend. Public opposition didn't stop Abe's Cabinet from rubber-stamping his semantic end run around the law, which raises a vital question: Will Japan's democracy survive Abe?