Majority rule is a basic feature of democracy. This principle, however, has often gone through violent contortions when it comes to voting in the Diet, a phenomenon rarely if ever observed in other advanced democracies.
One such melee occurred last July, when a House of Councilors committee voted on a contentious bill to allow Ground Self-Defense Force troops to be sent to Iraq on a humanitarian mission.
Opposition lawmakers swarmed the chairman's seat in a vain attempt to block passage of the bill, only to tangle with members of the ruling bloc trying to protect Chairman Ryuji Matsumura.