The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday endorsing a major security shift that will allow, by way of a reinterpretation of the nation's long-standing pacifist Constitution, for its forces to exercise the right to collective self-defense in some situations, has been met with a monumental public backlash as citizens here believe the nation is charting a dangerous course towards remilitarization.

Abe has been ardently pushing for this goal since he assumed office in December 2012, and since then has feverishly set about enacting controversial and publicly vilified legislative policies, such as the state secrecy protection law and the creation of the National Security Council (NSC), and sidestepped a much-needed and called for public referendum on the issue, to become the sole instrument of change for a nation, which in modern times, has committed to, and, preached the virtues of pacifism, since its defeat at the end of World War II.

Abe telling a press conference following the Cabinet's decision that, "Peace is not something people give us," and that, "There is no other way than to build it by ourselves," and continuing to justify today's historic move by stating that, " Making preparations for any contingencies will be instrumental in thwarting attempts by foreign countries to wage a war against Japan. And that is deterrence," did little to quell the concerns of the thousands of protesters, with numbers growing hourly, around Abe's official residence and the Diet building in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward Tuesday evening.

With official polls showing that more than 55 percent of the public oppose Japan engaging in collective self-defense, and almost 60 percent in opposition to Abe achieving this by changing the government's interpretation of the Constitution, the thousands amassed at the heart of Japanese politics today, in protest to the government's rash security shift, represent just a fraction of the millions nationwide, who are also staunchly opposed to the move.

"Article 9 of Japan's Constitution is the very bedrock that modern Japan has been founded on, it affects everything around us and defines our very social consciousness," a demonstrator called Toshi, from the Tokyo Democracy Crew, one of the organizers of today's protest, told Xinhua.

"There are ultra-right elements within the government and affiliated bureaucrats who are now in a position to abuse their power and that of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), without the public ever knowing, or being able to have an opinion on the issue. These are changing times, they are dangerous, and, as you can see, there's a nation of people who oppose the government's move today," he said.

Abe has vowed that Japanese troops won't be deployed in all-out war situations and that the scope of the SDF's deployment would be kept minimal and in the interests of Japan being a "proactive" contributor to global peace and security, but as other demonstrators pointed out, not all the logic adds up.

"Japan now plans to spend around 230 billion U.S. dollars to bolster the nation's forces over the next half-decade, which suggest that Abe saying that Japan will continue to be a 'pacifist state' is a bare-faced lie," Shunsuke Koyama, 41, a graphic designer for a prominent advertising agency here and member of today's protest co-organizer, Anti-War Committee of 1000, told Xinhua.

"The defense ministry has secured allocations to equip Japan's forces with more vessels and destroyers, missile and anti-missile technology and next-generation fighter jets, as well as increase military personnel. Are these the actions of a pacifist state, or those of a nation preparing for war?" Koyama said, with a placard bearing anti-fascist sentiments.

The specifics of Tuesday's announcement and its gravity has yet to be fully digested by throngs of protesters, and indeed the nation as a whole, but the fact that, in just a matter of months, Abe has managed to bring about one of the biggest security shifts in modern global military history, has not been lost on a nation which is now concerned for its future safety, and feeling duped by a government elected to represent them, not make war-linked decisions autonomously.

"This is not what we want. This is not the Japanese way. Abe doesn't speak for me or my children," Maya Tsunoda, 36, a nurse and mother of one, told Xinhua.

"I want my child to grow up in a peaceful Japan, the same Japan I inherited from parents. Even if Abe doesn't intend to go to war, perceptions surrounding his intentions could lead to other countries' misunderstanding and Japanese who joined the forces with pacifism in their hearts could being drawn into potentially deadly conflicts. What will the prime minister say when they start sending their bodies home? What if the conflict were at home? How am I supposed to explain this to my son," Tsunoda, who was with her two and-a-half year old son, told Xinhua.

Tsunoda's emotions were evident throughout the sentiments being voiced by the demonstrators -- themselves an unlikely mix of business people, elderly folk, couples with kids and students, but, predominantly comprising regular, nondescript, upper-middle-aged citizens, utterly livid at the predicament their government has put them in.

"If anyone knows the tragedy of war firsthand then it's me. I' ve seen it with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears and smelt it with my own nose," Sayaka Fujita, 88, a widower from Nagasaki Prefecture told Xinhua.

"For the sake of all the young people today, for the sake of the future of my Japan, we Japanese -- government and citizens -- must hold onto notions of peace and pacifism. Of those involved in ignoring Article 9, none of them have seen what I have seen, and I sincerely wish that none of them ever will. This is not the direction we should be moving in," Fujita, a survivor of the world 's last atomic attack on Nagasaki City in August 1945, told Xinhua.

The consensus among the masses here today is that the government has not acted in the best interests of the people it purports to serve, and there is now grave concern that military operations involving Japanese personnel may not even be brought to light, as both the secrecy bill and the NSC ensure that the government can operate in a clandestine manner, at the behest of furtive stakeholders, if it so chooses.

"We can't turn the clocks back, but we're wise to the government now and we've found our collective voice on this issue. We insist on full transparency from Abe and the government on any and all issues pertaining to Japan's security. We will continue to scrutinize and ask more questions of our government and call for more public debate. In any and all situations, its our duty now to hold all of our politicians, including Abe, accountable for actions that threaten our security," Toshi zealously concluded.