Thousands rally against greater Japanese arms role

A protester shouts anti-war and anti-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slogans while lifting a placard reading: “You go to the battle field! Do not embroil national in your play, during a demonstration against the government’s moves to change Japan’s defense policy in front of his official residence in Tokyo Monday, June 30, 2014. AP

TOKYO — Thousands of people have protested in Tokyo against an expected decision by Japan’s government to allow its military a larger international role.

Several thousand people demonstrated outside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office on Monday evening, demanding that his Cabinet scrap a plan to allow the military to help defend other nations by reinterpreting the country’s war-renouncing constitution.

The Cabinet is expected to announce the decision Tuesday.

It is one of the biggest changes in Japan’s security policy since World War II. Previously the constitution has been interpreted as allowing the use of arms only for Japan’s own self-defense, and critics say the change undermines the charter.

Abe says the revision is needed because of China’s military expansion and missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.