TOKYO- Japan's parliament enacted controversial anticonspiracy legislation on Thursday after the ruling coalition overcame fierce overnight resistance from most opposition parties and railroaded it by taking an unusual step of bypassing a committee vote.

The House of Councillors, the upper chamber, approved the bill by a majority vote with support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner, Komeito, and Nippon Ishin no Kai, an opposition party.

The bill, which cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, last month, is designed to criminalize planning and preparations to commit serious crimes, including terrorist attacks, through revisions to the organized crime punishment law. The law covers a total of 277 types of crimes punishable by imprisonment of at least four years.

The Upper House Judicial Affairs Committee skipped a vote on the bill after the ruling camp stepped out of line with parliamentary protocol and resorted to an "interim report," which enabled a vote in the full chamber without committee approval.

The law will be enforced in July at the earliest.

In the voting on the bill, which was held in an Upper House plenary meeting after a tense tug of war that continued all night, 165 voted in favor and 70 opposed.

The ruling camp claims that the anticonspiracy legislation is needed in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The law is also part of the government's efforts to develop a domestic legal framework in order to become a signatory to the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

Opposition parties stood against it due to concerns over the possible abuse of investigative power.

Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, "Japan wants to sign the U.N. treaty as soon as possible and cooperate with the international community to prevent terrorist attacks," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after the legislation's enactment.

Abe also said his government will administer the new law appropriately and effectively in order to protect the lives and the properties of Japanese people.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga tried to dispel worries about the possible abuse of the law. "Clear and strict conditions have been set for determining specific acts as constituting crimes in order to prevent arbitrary applications (of the law)," Suga told a press conference.

Following the enactment of the contentious legislation, the ruling parties plan to proceed with the handling of key pending bills, including the one to revise the Penal Code to impose tougher penalties on sex crimes, until Friday so that they can be enacted during the current parliamentary session, now expected to end on Sunday as scheduled.

Speaking to reporters, the LDP's parliamentary affairs chief of the Upper House, Masaji Matsuyama, said the ruling bloc is not thinking about extending the session.

Yoshio Urushibara, chief of Komeito's Central Secretariat, said, "Extension is not in our minds."

Initially, the ruling camp was considering a modest extension to ensure the anticonspiracy legislation's enactment.

Ahead of the June 23 start of the official campaign period for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election, however, the ruling parties are increasingly concerned over any adverse effects of the confusion over the voting on the anticonspiracy bill as well as of the shady approval of a university faculty plan allegedly influenced by Abe's "will." They decided, therefore, to close the session as scheduled in order avoid prolonged attacks from the opposition camp.

The ruling bloc is ready to hold consultations with the opposition camp about holding deliberations while parliament is in recess, officials said.

In the Upper House plenary meeting that started on Wednesday, the ruling parties brushed aside a series of opposition campaigns to block the passage of the anticonspiracy bill.

The Upper House rejected opposition-sponsored nonbinding censure motions against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda and Regional Revitalization Minister Kozo Yamamoto and a Democratic Party-submitted resolution to dismiss Junzo Yamamoto, chairman of the chamber's Rules and Administration Committee.

The meeting continued into the night and Kozo Akino of Komeito, chairman of the Upper House Judicial Affairs Committee, made the interim report on the anticonspiracy bill in the small hours of Thursday. The voting was then conducted amid loud protests from opposition lawmakers.

"The criticism of the opposition parties and the negative label placed (on the bill) by them are totally groundless," Shoji Nishida of the LDP told the Upper House plenary meeting, stressing the significance of the anticonspiracy legislation. (Jiji Press)