A new poll shows that the majority of the people in Japan are opposed to Tokyo’s plans to ratify a series of controversial security bills that would allow the country’s military to engage in overseas combat for the first time since World War II.

Fifty four percent of the respondents in the survey, which was conducted over the weekend and published on Monday by Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, disagreed with the bills, compared to the 29 percent who supported them.

Furthermore, three-quarters of those polled said the debate over the contentious bills, proposed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has been insufficient.

The bills, approved by the lower house of the Japanese parliament on July 16, will broaden the mandate of Japan’s military forces, allowing them to participate in foreign operations in order to protect allies such as the United States even if there was no direct threat to Japan.

The proposed new rules must now be passed in the upper house of the parliament, where Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition has the two-thirds majority required for their approval.

The opponents of the bills are concerned that they would harm 70 years of pacifism as Tokyo has been barred from combat except in self-defense under a 1945 constitution. Abe and his supporters, however, say Tokyo should increase the extent and power of its army to deal with potential threats from regional countries that are expanding their military and nuclear capabilities.

In recent months, thousands of the Japanese have held protest rallies across the country to voice their opposition to the security bills.

The poll also showed that support for Abe’s administration fell to 36 percent, the lowest since he came to power in December 2013.