The Diet on Friday enacted a set of laws that defines the rules under which Japan can respond to attacks by a foreign enemy, a development with serious implications for Japan's national security policy and its war-renouncing Constitution.
The legislation is the first of its kind since the end of World War II.
The government-sponsored war contingency bills, which give the government greater powers to deploy the Self-Defense Forces in the event of a military emergency, were approved by an overwhelming majority of 202-32 in the Upper House.