More than 500 people in Tokyo and about 200 in Fukushima Prefecture have begun legal action against the government, arguing that the security laws ushered in by the Abe administration violate the Constitution.
One of the lawsuits filed Tuesday with the Tokyo District Court seeks to block the deployment of Self-Defense Forces personnel under the laws, while the other calls for ¥100,000 in damages for each of the plaintiffs.
The suits are the first of several planned nationwide by a group of legal experts and others against the legislation expanding the SDF’s role overseas, which came into force last month after being enacted in the Diet last September.
Also Tuesday, a roughly 200-strong group sought compensation over the security laws at the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima District Court.
The legislation, allowing Japan to use force to defend the United States and other allies if they came under attack, even if Japan itself is not attacked, followed the Abe Cabinet’s reinterpretation of the Constitution in July 2014 as allowing the country to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
Read the full story at Japan Times