Abe's monocratic stewarding of national ship towards conflict stirring vociferous public opposition

To this end, Seiichiro Murakami, a former Minister of State for Regulatory Reform, who also holds a degree in law from Tokyo University, remarked earlier this week that lawmakers should not be"bound by compulsory adherence to the party's decision when voting on the bills."

"What we're starting to see is growing fractures in the armor of Abe's ruling party, caused by Abe himself being overly zealous about forcing more security changes on a pacifist public that does not want to risk any chances of Japan being involved in any form of conflict here or abroad,"said McLellan.

"And there's discord growing now within the party, from those who believe Abe has gone too far this time in his unconstitutional dealings, having previously reinterpreted the Constitution by way of Cabinet decision rather than public or parliamentary mandate as stipulated by the Supreme Law."

"And the public unrest is growing and is set to grow further, as long as the government continues to act of its own accord on issues of security that could very well threaten the lives of normal civilians,"McLellan said, adding that Okinawa's anti-base and antiwar sentiments were also beginning to resonate on the mainland.

He pointed to a poll jointly conducted by the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper and the Okinawa Television Broadcasting (OTV) at the end of last month, which showed that more than 80 percent of Okinawans are against Abe and the central government's plans to relocate the controversial US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Japan's southernmost prefecture.

The number of people opposing the relocation plan is the second- highest on record and the highest since Abe took office in 2012 and the survey showed that more than 30 percent of Okinawans want the base relocated outside Japan, while around 30 percent said the base should be closed and removed unconditionally. More than 20 percent said the base should be moved to another prefecture in Japan.

"At first I think the public were enamored with Abe and his strong economic policies, but it would seem that they are finally coming around to understand that their leader's priority was never the economy, it was the military, and taking it from a glorified police force of sorts, and reintroducing it alongside new weapons and tie-ups with other countries as a global fighting force, committed to following the United States into battle,"said McLellan.

"Okinawans perhaps have felt firsthand the brutality of Japan' s past militarism and hence their anti-base and antiwar calls have been ringing out for decades, but it appears that the public on the mainland is finally understanding that their leader is autocratically and rapidly steering the nation towards potential conflict and as the statistics and demonstrations show, opposition to his war moves are growing here," McLellan concluded.