Bishop welcomes Japan's military reforms

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has welcomed new laws being passed in Japan under which the country's troops could fight abroad for the first time in nearly 70 years.

Japan's military has been restricted to self-defence and aid missions by a pacifist constitution imposed by the US after World War II.

The changes, approved on Friday, would allow Japanese troops to fight in defence of allies.

Ms Bishop says the reforms will ensure enhanced security cooperation between Australia and Japan, and allow the two countries to work together more easily on peacekeeping operations and humanitarian and disaster relief.

"These reforms will allow Japan to make a greater contribution to international peace and stability, including by exercising its UN Charter right to collective self-defence," Ms Bishop said in a statement on Saturday.

"... Australia fully supports reforms that increase Japan's role in our shared interests in regional and international peace and security."

The reaction within Japan was not as positive, with tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets almost daily before the change came about.

Nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the changes as a normalisation of Japan's military policy.

He and his backers said the laws were necessary because of threats from an increasingly belligerent China and unstable North Korea.

Opponents argued they went against both the constitution and the national psyche, and could see Japan dragged into far-flung American wars.