(VOVworld) - Japan's Lower House on Thursday approved a controversial security bill which allows for considerable changes to the country’s defense policy.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (3rd R) and his cabinet members react after the passing of controversial security bills during a lower house session at the parliament in Tokyo, July 16, 2015. (AFP photo)

The changes would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government affirmed that the changes are crucial to confronting new security challenges.

If it’s passed by the National Diet of Japan, the bill will realize the historical decision that Abe's cabinet made a year ago, under which Tokyo will reinterpret the constitution and allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense or help to defend others such as the US and its allies even if Japan itself is not attacked.