politics

State secret law stirs fear of limits on freedoms

26 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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26 Comments
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Japan is very dependent on U.S.

State secret law U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Military protection I wonder what will happen if U.S. gives up
1 ( +3 / -2 )

To all the folks supporting Abe and his "policies", this is just the start, and you'd better start worrying now before it's too late.....(oh crap there's someone knocking at the door in a blue uniform and holding a badge, bye ya'll, been real.....)

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Anti-establishment protesters will most definitely be arrested. I think that is the whole point. The Iron Heel is upon us. Yubaru. You are correct. This is just the beginning.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Neoliberalization and increased repression always go hand in hand, folks. I at least hope that some of these journalists and activists are prepared to put their money where their mouths are and go to court and to jail in defiance of the new laws, and that some news organizations are prepared to provide financial and legal support to this end.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

This is where we're headed, people, with a person like Abe at the helm.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Idiots voters get idiot governement.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Dumb and dumber apathetics of Japan: Get ready for forced conscription. I predicted it with the rise of Adolph Abe, and now it is ever closer.

Japan is the true bitch of American hegemony in the Far East, and the artful-and-designing provacative acts of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine annually and buying islands under dispute amply convey the hawkish, diabolical relationship between the the US and Japan.

If push comes to shove, the Communists of China are more able to control and suppress the masses civily than the quasi-democracy called Japan with its sordid history.

Japanese better get ready for jack-boot cops smashing down doors to capture the insurgents - that's virtually everyone in Japan who will - at that moment of truth - seriously regret having let Adolph Abe rise from the ashes.

And the Americans may find that Abe (and his more high-handed henchmen waiting in the wings) may turn out to be another corrupt, genocidal,uncontrollable, unpredictable Hussein clone somewhere down the short road.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

The arrogance of Abe can be seen in the holding of a public hearing the day before the vote. Whatever the result of the public hearing it is clear that Abe had no intention of amending the secrecy law in any way. They don't want to know your opinions; they will do as they please.

I expect any evidence of Japanese war atrocities will be among the first things made secret. Abe always insisted there was no evidence of official Japanese involvement in the procuring of comfort women, even though such evidence exists in government archives. That evidence will now become secret and disappear. Anyone publishing it, or even trying to find it, will be arrested and jailed. School textbooks can be amended to reflect the new "facts" (no evidence of atrocities, therefore they didn't happen) and the whitewashing of history will be complete.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Well, Japanese people, time to wake up, stop voting these people back to power.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Abe will be remembered not for what he has done "for" the people but what he has done "to" the people.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It's too late! The secrecy bill has already been passed (in secret). Somebody really needs to point out the differences between democracy and socialism to the Abe government. If the government can change the constitution and make up their own rules in secret to suit themselves it is not a democracy at all! It is socialism!

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

One of the first things that will be stopped is valid complaints against the secrecy bill. Adolph Abe is knocking at the door and letting himself in without your permission.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

The serious problem with this law is that the government can arbitrarily decide on what is a secret and what is not. The police may arrest people who want to expose truths about what the government is doing which it doesn't want to be known.

Does anyone know the "Miyazawa-Lane Incident" that occurred on December 8, 1941, the day the Imperial Japanese combined fleet attacked the Pearl Harbor?

On that morning, Hiroyuki Miyazawa, a Hokkaido U student, and Mr. Harold Lane, an English instructor, and his wife, Pauline Lane, were arrested by the special police on the count of Miyazawa's telling the Lanes what he had seen at the Nemuro Air Base. They were harshly tortured to confess to the putative crime and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on what turned out later to be a false charge (Annual Report of Hokkaido University Archives, 5: 109-132).

The cabinet held a public hearing at Fukushima City the day before the bill was passed. The mayor of the city was incensed at the abrupt and forceful passage of the law, saying the public hearing the day before was held merely to set up the government's alibi

Hope the secrecy law will never lead to the return of those dark years that oppressively fogged society all in prewar Japan.

As the article says, there's ubiquitous U.S. instigation and intervention behind the scene that is encouraging Tokyo to quickly enact the law.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

What do some of these countries spying on their citizens have in common?

Stuttering economies. A decline in living standards. Debts that they will never realistically pay off. Anticipated future civil unrest?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Supposedly set up to limit what government employees can say in public it is also VERY possible for individuals to get nailed under this act as well.

On one of the AM talk shows today a lawyer was consulted and he gave a few examples of how a private citizen could potentially get nailed. In one of the examples even being a third party to information 20 years after the fact, and NOT KNOWING that the information was considered "secret" at any point could land you in jail for 10 or more and a fine of up to 100 million yen

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just as I predicted.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Abe always insisted there was no evidence of official Japanese involvement in the procuring of comfort women, even though such evidence exists in government archives.

Scrote, which archives is it in, and where?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I expect any evidence of Japanese war atrocities will be among the first things made secret. Abe always insisted there was no evidence of official Japanese involvement in the procuring of comfort women, even though such evidence exists in government archives. That evidence will now become secret and disappear. Anyone publishing it, or even trying to find it, will be arrested and jailed. School textbooks can be amended to reflect the new "facts" (no evidence of atrocities, therefore they didn't happen) and the whitewashing of history will be complete.

I'm pretty sure this law has nothing to do with comfort women, but you can believe what you want. Whatever evidence existed on that issue is likely already burned away.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is nothing new: citizens have almost no right to privacy in Japan from what I'm told. According to my buddy, a police detective in Ibaraki, police can search anyone, anywhere, at any time, with no warrant or probable cause. Oh, they want to search your backpack at the train station? Yep, you can't say no. Your car? Pop the truck, bro. Your house? Refusal just proves you have something to hide. Now they just expand the powers of the government even more. Maybe they're taking lessons from the NSA?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Maybe they're taking lessons from the NSA?

No. More like taking lessons from 1930 Japan.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

JP gov is the same as CN gov since this law approved.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Shinzo's eyes remind me so much of his grandfather Nobusuke's eyes.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

No. More like taking lessons from 1930 Japan.

Cool. Today's Koreas are good example as well.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

homeland:

The information is all in the National Archives of Japan, but probably won't be for much longer once Abe makes it secret.

This has been well known for some years, but Abe denies it anyway. He never lets the facts get in the way of his rantings. Search for "japan archive comfort women" and you can find more details.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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