TOKYO, June 29 -- A man was badly injured after burning himself Sunday at the crowded Shinjuku train station in Japan's capital Tokyo in a move to protest against the Japanese government's attempt to exercise the rights to collective self- defense, according to local media.
The man, according to pictures, was in his 50s or 60s and was transferred to a hospital where he remained conscious, a local report said, citing local police that the man had an one-hour speech opposing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration and its efforts to lift the country's self-imposed ban on collective self- defense rights before burning himself on a bridge connecting buildings at around 2:10 p.m. local time.
Local police has blocked the site after the incident and declined to provide details to Xinhua through a telephone interview. Name and other details of the victim have not been released by the local police or media.
The incident came after the Japanese government on Friday submitted the final version of the resolutions of exercising the defense rights to the ruling coalition.
The Abe administration plans to approve the resolutions on July 1 at the earliest date if the ruling bloc gives green light to the final version.
The collective self-defense rights allow the Japanese Self- Defense Forces (SDF) engage battles overseas, which run contrary against Japan's war-renouncing pacifist constitution which bans the SDF to combat outside Japan.
According to latest survey on the controversial issue by Japan' s Asahi Shimbun, about 67 percent of Japanese opposed lifting the ban through constitution reinterpretation and 56 percent of Japanese oppose relaxing the ban through any means.
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