Japan’s House of Representatives, the lower house of the country's bicameral parliament, passed a controversial bill Jan. 11 allowing the resumption of Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling operations for U.S. and coalition ships in the Indian Ocean involved in anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. The lower house originally passed the bill in November 2007, but earlier Jan. 11 the House of Councilors, Japan's upper house, rejected the bill. For the first time since 1951, the lower house voted to override the upper house, and with more than two-thirds support, passed the bill. While not a vital piece of legislation for Japan (or for operations in Afghanistan for that matter — the mission serves more of a symbolic than critical military role), the refueling law has served as both a lightning rod for, and a barometer of, Japanese political power for nearly a year.