Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cleared a major hurdle to revising the war-renouncing Constitution on Monday as the Diet approved a bill to establish procedures for a national referendum to amend the charter.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Amid outcry from the opposition parties, the bill was passed in the Upper House with a majority vote from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. The referendum law will take effect in three years.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Protesters against revising the Constitution gathered outside the Diet in the morning, voicing their opposition and anger over the bill.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'I am deeply disappointed and would like to express strong objection' to the bill, said Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the Social Democratic Party. 'The –

law will in reality destroy the Constitution," Fukushima told reporters in the Diet following the bill's passage.

Fukushima also expressed anger over the short deliberation period in the Upper House — barely one month since the bill passed the Lower House on April 13.

Like the other opposition parties, the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan also voted against the ruling coalition's bill. It submitted its own version to the current Diet session, but it was not voted on. The main difference between the two bills was that the ruling bloc limited the referendum to the Constitution while the DPJ broadened the range to include other important laws.

"The DPJ's bill is 95 percent the same as (that of) the LDP," said LDP Upper House lawmaker Yoichi Masuzoe after the bill was passed. "We could not deliberate (on the bill) endlessly, and while it may not be perfect, I believe it was appropriate to go ahead with the vote."