Half of Japanese voters oppose dropping a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad since World War II, a survey showed on Monday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe readied a landmark shift in security policy that would ease the constraints of the pacifist constitution on the armed forces. A third of voters support the change, the survey found.
A man set himself on fire at a busy Tokyo intersection on Sunday in an apparent protest against the policy change, police and witnesses said. Self-immolation is a rare form of protest in Japan.
The change will significantly widen Japan's military options by ending the ban on exercising collective self-defense, or aiding a friendly country under attack. It will also relax limits on activities in U.N.-led peacekeeping operations and "gray zone" incidents short of full-scale war, according to a draft government proposal made available to reporters last week.