There were chaotic scenes inside Japan’s normally orderly parliament today as opposition lawmakers thronged a committee room in an unsuccessful bid to block Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s controversial security bills.

If the parliament backs the bill, Japan’s Self Defense troops will be allowed to engage overseas for the first time since World War II.

That tension was on display Wednesday as opposition lawmakers attempted to thwart the committee’s vote and hundreds chanted anti-war and anti-Abe slogans outside in protest.

At the House of Representatives committee, which is dominated by Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), members of opposition parties surrounded the chairman, holding banners to protest the “forced” passage.

“The security legislation is needed so that Japan can respond without pause”, Abe said.

Approval of the bill in the Diet’s two houses would allow the SDF to engage in missions of “collective defense” with allies, even those without a direct threat to Japan. But he can still use the time between now and the end of September to make clear to the Japanese people that the new measures are far more modest than they’re being made out to be.

The Japanese government is planning to project that nominal gross domestic product will be around 2.9% in fiscal 2016, with real growth at around 1.7% – 0.2 points above this fiscal year’s expected level. Opposition has swelled since early June, when a trio of well-regarded experts appeared before the Diet and questioned the legislation’s constitutionality.

“Unfortunately, the Japanese people still don’t have a substantial understanding” of the bills, AFP cited Japanese prime minister as saying on Wednesday.

“Our generation has for many years enjoyed freedom, liberty and safety in the post-war era and we will not tolerate the current deterioration of politics in Japan, which is destabilizing the East Asian region”. He expressed regret that he had not gained public understanding and said he would continue to explain.

But there are growing signs that his determination to push the unpopular bills is exacting a political cost.

“During the visit both sides will hold a high-level Sino-Japan political dialogue, and exchange views on Sino-Japan relations and issues of mutual concern”, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement announcing National Security Council head Shotaro Yachi’s visit from Thursday.

“We need, under the Abe administration, to do whatever it takes to protect Japan”, commentator Yoshiko Sakurai, an Abe ally, said at a May 3 event to mark the anniversary of the constitution taking effect. Critics say the ongoing dispute with China over territory may have pushed Japanese government to reconsider its military options.