Japan Press Weekly

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2012 July 25 - 31 [CIVIL RIGHTS]

Ban on public workers political acts approved in Osaka City

The Osaka City Assembly at its plenary session on July 27 enacted the mayor-sponsored ordinance bill restricting city employees’ political activities, with a majority vote by the mayor-led Osaka Ishin-no Kai, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the Komei Party. The Japanese Communist Party voted against the bill.

The new ordinance runs counter to the freedom of thought and conscience as guaranteed in Article 19 of the Constitution, and will punish violators in the form of “a warning, pay cuts, a suspension from duty, or a dismissal”.

Prior to the vote, JCP assemblyperson Yamanaka Tomoko took the floor in opposition to the bill, arguing that it go beyond the legal permissible limits for a city to prohibit its workers from engaging in all political activities even during their private time like after-work hours, on weekends, and national holidays.

The JCP representative criticized the bill as creating a chilling effect on the freedom of expression that Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees as well as creating a great number of silent city workers who have to obey everything the mayor says.

Soon after the bill’s enactment, the Osaka Prefectural Committee of the JCP published a comment signed by the committee chair, Yamaguchi Katsutoshi, reading, “No ordinance can tie down the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of political activity.”