Japan: MPs scuffle in parliament as panel approves contentious security bill

Scuffles broke out between members of Japan's upper house in Tokyo, Thursday, after a panel approved the controversial security bills that would allow the country's armed forces to conduct warfare abroad for the first time since WWII. Lawmakers both supporting and opposing the new legislation shouted, pushed and shoved each other after the panel approved the bills.

Now that the bills has obtained the approval of the committee of the upper house, a vote will be held. Given that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc has the majority in the upper house, it is expected that legislation will be approved by parliament.

The new legislation allows the Japanese military to deploy abroad for the first time since the end of the Second World War in 1945. The move allows the prime minister and government to deploy troops to assist allies, likely the United States, without parliament's approval or public debate. Analysts have linked the changes to the US's 'pivot to Asia' in national security, a policy widely seen to be an attempt to contain China.