The bill that was voted down in the upper house would restart the mission providing fuel to the coalition forces stationed on the Indian Ocean. This action to vote the bill down came on the last day that the upper house had to act on the legislation of the bill which was present sixty days earlier.
This bill was rejected on a party-line vote of 133 against the bill with 106 in favor of it. However, by voting it down, the bill will be sent back to the lower house. There, the coalition of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will set to pass the bill by its two-thirds majority vote.
This will be the first time in a half-century that Japan’s parliament resorted to such a drastic action to go through a bill rejected by one house.
When the opposition won control in November, the mission was suspended. PM Fukuda made the argument that Japan was resume its mission to take responsibility in the affairs of world security.
The opposition countered in return that Japan should not be part of “American wars.” After World War II, Japan was officially a pacifist nation.