Mothers, students join Japan's protests over security bills

A rally against Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security bill is reflected in a protester's sunglasses outside the parliament in Tokyo August 30, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

The bills are based on the Abe Cabinet's decision to alter the interpretation of Japan's constitution, drawn up by the occupying US military after World War II, and not the constitution itself, which prohibits the country using force for purposes other than its own self-defense.

Dozens of legal experts and other academics have questioned the bills' constitutionality, saying they go beyond what's written in the charter.

The presence of college students in the protests, including a group known as SEALDs, or Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy, has also captured media attention this summer in Japan, where student activists have been nearly extinct for decades.