Japan abandoned its postwar pacifism since the end of World War II as the parliament's upper house on early Saturday enacted a controversial legislation pushed by the government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The legislation's enactment marked an overhaul in Japan's purely defensive defense posture, meaning the country could dispatch its troops abroad to engage in armed conflicts for the first time in seven decades.

However, the country's war-renouncing Constitution bans its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) from doing so or exercising the right to collective self-defense.

Under the newly enacted legislation, Japan will create a permanent law to allow its SDF to carry out logistical support missions for foreign militaries in international peacekeeping operations, and other 10 existing security-related laws will be revised.