Japan Press Weekly

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2017 January 11 - 17 [POLITICS]

Large majority of local bar associations oppose ‘conspiracy bill’

An overwhelming majority of local bar associations in the country oppose a bill to criminalize conspiracy which the Abe Cabinet is set to submit in the upcoming Diet session.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) said that as of January 11, 34 out of its 52 affiliated organizations issued statements in opposition to the bill. The number has rapidly increased since the media reported last August that the Cabinet was preparing a “conspiracy bill”.

Similar bills were presented to the Diet three times from 2003 to 2007. However, they provoked fierce public criticism as they were seen to be aimed at punishing people just for “talking together” and ended up being scrapped.

The Abe government is poised to propose a new bill to the parliament to be convened on January 20 under the guise of penalizing “preparatory acts of terrorism”.

The Chiba Bar Association’s statement condemned the bill for “penalizing a wide range of acts which are totally unrelated to terrorism”. The Ehime Bar Association pointed out that the measure to punish people for their thoughts violates the constitutional freedom of thought and belief. The Akita Bar Association noted that such a law will allow the police to tap phones at any time under the pretext of searching for conspiracies.

Lawyer Misawa Maiko of the Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom (JLAF) said, “Under such a law, if citizens bought a rush mat for the purpose of joining sit-in protests against the construction of U.S. military facilities in Okinawa, they may be arrested immediately for committing a ‘preparatory act of terrorism’. The bill will help turn Japan into an authoritarian surveillance society.”