Court makes significant decision in regard to suppression of citizens’ right to political activities

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Court makes significant decision in regard to suppression of citizens’ right to political activities
Akahata editorial

The Tokyo High Court on March 29 reversed a lower court decision and acquitted government agency employee Horikoshi Akio of the National Public Service Law for distributing Japanese Communist Party fliers. This is a significant court decision showing that there are no reasonable grounds to prohibit public servants from taking part in political activities on their own time.

Reasonable action as a citizen

Horikoshi, an employee of the Social Insurance Agency, distributed door to door copies of an extra of the JCP newspaper Akahata near his home on his days off during the House of Representatives general election campaign in 2003. By doing this, he was arrested and indicted on charges of violating the National Public Service Law and the National Personnel Authority regulations that ban public employees from participating in political activities.

After the Tokyo District Court found Horikoshi guilty, a wide range of people, including scholars, intellectuals, and lawyers raised their voices against the ruling. The U.N. Human Rights Committee sent recommendations to the Japanese government in October 2008, stating that the government should “prevent the police, prosecutors and courts from unduly restricting political campaigning and other activities.”

Citizens, whether they are public servants or workers in the private sector, must be free to take part in political activities. Public servants are banned from participating in political activities if such actions obstruct their official duties. However, it is unreasonable to prohibit them from carrying out political activities as an individual not related to their work duties.

Public servants in Britain, France, and Germany have the right to engage in political activities that do not affect their official duties. Even if affecting their official duties, they only receive disciplinary punishment, not a criminal charge. In fact, with the privatization of Japan’s postal services and the Social Insurance Agency, employees who used to work there are no longer government employees, and thus their right to political activities is not prohibited. Even before that, it was crystal clear that the ban on political activities of those employees had no reasonable grounds because they caused neither problems nor confusion in their jobs.

The Tokyo High Court acknowledged that restrictions on civil servants’ political activities in Japan are too strict compared to other countries and ruled that the lower court ruling on the Horikoshi case was against the freedom of expression as guaranteed in Article 21 of the Constitution. However, the problem remains in the court decision recognizing that the existing penalty provisions of the National Public Service Law regarding public employees’ political activities are constitutional. Special police working undercover surveilled Horikoshi and took video shots of him in order to intimidate all national public employees from being involved in any political activities. The judge, however, ruled against this political repression.

For freedom of political activities

Article 102 of the National Public Service Law and regulations of the National Personnel Authorities prohibit political activities of civil servants to be regarded as criminal acts without showing any relation to fair performance of official duties. Such action is in violation of the Japanese Constitution and the International Covenant on Human Rights in the first place.

The Tokyo High Public Prosecutors’ Office should refrain from appealing the case to the Supreme Court. The Japanese Communist Party will continue to cooperate with a wide range of people to win a definitive verdict of not guilty, reveal problems associated with the National Public Service Law and regulations of the National Personnel Authorities, and propose legal changes.

- Akahata, March 30, 2010