Japan Press Weekly

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2013 December 18 - 24 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Komei works as accelerator of runaway LDP policies

Contrary to its pledge to become a “brake” on Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s administration in the Upper House election in summer, the Komei Party, the coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party, is now fueling the Abe Cabinet’s runaway policies.

“Disappointment must be expressed over the Komei Party, which has called itself the ‘party for peace.’ Instead of working as a brake to prevent the LDP from getting out of control, it has encouraged it by pressing down on the accelerator,” said the Okinawa Times on December 7.

Komei helped a series of forcible passages of a state secrets protection law in the Diet. Just before the voting of the secrecy bill at the House of Councilors plenary session on December 6, members of the Democratic Party of Japan, who originally left the session, came back to the floor in order to express their opposition to the bill. At that time, Komei members banged on tables and shouted, “Order! Order!,” urging the Upper House president to proceed with the vote.

The ruling coalition party is now busy covering up its actions related to the enactment of the controversial law. Its organ paper Komei Shimbun claimed on December 7 that the secrets law was enacted “after thorough Diet discussions”.

An opinion poll covered by Asahi Shimbun on December 8, however, shows that 76% of the respondents think the discussions were “insufficient”.

The Komei Shimbun also argues, “With Komei’s efforts, the right to know was secured in the law” (December 7). What the party actually did was to stage a token “modification” of the bill to touch on the right to know without working to eradicate the true threat to various rights that the bill posed.

The “achievement” Komei boasts of in the “modification” process was to include in the bill the phrase that the freedom of press “that contributes to citizens’ right to know must be given sufficient consideration.” However, even some of its own lawmakers say that this is ineffective to guarantee that constitutional right.

The Ehime Shimbun on December 7 stated, “The Komei Party has failed to put a brake on outrageous LDP policies. It will inevitably face criticism for having had a hand in installing a law that could constrain human rights.”