Protesters hold anti-war placards in front of the National Diet building during a rally in Tokyo, Sunday, August 30, 2015. (Photo/Wang Jian)
Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered outside Japan's parliament on Sunday to oppose security legislation in one of this summer's biggest rallies ahead of its anticipated passage next month.
They chanted, "No to war legislation!" "Scrap the bills now!" and "Abe, quit!" during Sunday's rally.
The demonstrators oppose the legislation that would expand Japan's military role.
In Japan, where people generally don't express political views in public, such rallies have largely diminished since the often violent university student protests in the early 1960s. Anti-nuclear protests after the 2011 Fukushima disaster also petered out.
Smaller protests were held elsewhere across the nation Sunday. The demonstrations started earlier this year but grew sharply after July, when Abe's ruling party and its junior coalition partner pushed the legislation through the more powerful lower house despite vocal opposition from other parties - and media polls showing the majority of Japanese opposed the bills.
Based on a Cabinet decision last year reinterpreting Japan's war-renouncing constitution, the legislation would allow the Self Defense Force to engage in combat for the first time since World War II when allies come under attack even when Japan itself is not.
The parliament is expected to make a decision on the matter by late September.
