Abe's win is Japan's loss

The passing of controversial security bills marks a historical watershed of Japan heading against its war-renouncing Constitution and 70-year-old path of not sending Japanese Self-Defense Forces to other countries.

The winner is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his extreme conservative politicians who've clinched a major accomplishment in their long-time dream of "making Japan normal" by remilitarizing it.

This dream was seeded by Abe's grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, the infamous "Monster of the Showa era", who escaped punishment as a Class-A war criminal at the Tokyo Trials serving twice as Japan's prime minister. He was forced to resign in July 1960 in aborted operations to "make Japan a normal state".

Abe does it by commanding his coalition majority in the parliament in railroading the bills at the cost of the Japanese nation.

The Japanese people are the first losers. The new bill authorizes Japanese youth to join battles in other lands even when Japan is not at danger of invasion, and has drawn wide opposition leading to a plunge of Abe's Cabinet's rating.

However, about 90 percent of Japan's constitutional experts believe that the legislation violates the Japanese supreme law. The Japanese people have to pay the price for either choosing Abe's political party to govern or not voting at all after getting tired of politics. Japanese parents have been deprived the right to stop their children from fighting for others in others' lands.

Japan, the country, also loses. In today's global arena which favors law and order, Japan openly embarrasses its own Constitution, breaking its solemn promises of never sending troops overseas again. From now on, what other promises from Japan can ever be trusted again? No matter how polite Japanese politicians can be, they should be shunned altogether if law and peace are the focus.

Democracy is another loser. Abe has fully exploited the advantages of parliamentary polls and legislative loopholes through the majority coalition, suppressing the opposition media and blowing up a "China threat".

While the Japanese people are surprised by Abe's political maneuvering with pre-war tactics and themes, they can hardly change his step-after-step trampling upon their own wills possibly until years later, when another election is due.

The biggest loser is world peace. While more than 100 nations are celebrating the 70th anniversary of victory against Nazi Germany and Japanese and Italian fascism, Japan fires a response by breaking its pacifist promise and getting ready to send its troops to battles again. Japanese politicians' unyielding spirit of militarism will only worsen Japan's tensions with such neighbors like China, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; possibly sinking hopes for sustaining the Pacific region as the driver of world peace and economic growth.

In allowing such extremist politicians to cause massive losses to a nation, both Japan and our world should go into soul-searching reflections over where we are heading and how.

The author is a writer with China Daily.