{"id":13159,"date":"2015-03-23T11:29:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T21:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13159"},"modified":"2015-03-23T13:22:54","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T23:22:54","slug":"jt-should-japan-beef-up-its-anti-terrorism-measures-renewed-political-opportunism-to-further-erode-postwar-civil-liberties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13159","title":{"rendered":"JT: “Should Japan beef up its anti-terrorism measures?” Renewed political opportunism to further erode Postwar civil liberties, go soft on right-wing groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Related to the increasingly tightening domestic security over Japanese society in the wake of attacks on Japanese citizens abroad<\/a>, here is an overlooked article by Eric Johnston in the Japan Times a few days ago. It’s a long one, with contents excerpted below as germane to Debito.org. As we have talked in detail in the wake of other wakes, e.g., the G8 Summit in Hokkaido<\/a>, the G8 Summit in Nago<\/a>, the 2002 World Cup<\/a>, other anti-democratic habits brought out in Japanese society whenever Japan holds an international event<\/a>, and also a longstanding theory that Gaijin are mere Guinea Pigs (since they have fewer civil or political rights) to test out pupal public policy before applying it to the rest of the Japanese population<\/a>, I believe what’s going on here<\/a> is a long arc<\/a> of further eroding Postwar civil liberties<\/a> in the name of security and ever-strengthening police power in Japan<\/a> in favor of rightist elements (see below). Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Security blanket: Should Japan beef up its anti-terrorism measures?<\/strong>
\n by Eric Johnston, Staff Writer<\/strong>
\n The Japan Times, March 21, 2015 [excerpt], courtesy of JDG<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2015\/03\/21\/national\/security-blanket-japan-beef-anti-terrorism-measures\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[…] Since the exercise in Fukui nearly a decade ago, more than 100 drills in response to some form of security threat have been conducted at prefectures throughout the country. Assumptions behind the threats the drills are based on range from unidentified armed groups landing on the Japan Sea coast and bombing hospitals and medical facilities to railway station bombings in major cities and a widespread chemical weapons attack in central Tokyo.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While the law has prodded various local and central government agencies to coordinate a response, the Aum threat and the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. began a process of rethinking about domestic security that first manifested itself at the 2002 World Cup and later in Hokkaido at the Group of Eight summit in 2008. In recent weeks, support for further measures picked up steam with the deaths of journalists Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa at the hands of the Islamic State group in the Middle East. The deaths of three Japanese tourists in Tunisia last week will simply accelerate what is already a fast-moving debate.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Suddenly, it seems, the domestic media, public and the political world are obsessed with threats, real and imagined, to the country\u2019s security and to Japanese who venture abroad. Next year\u2019s G-8 summit (sans Russia) will return to Japan, and seven cities \u2014 Hiroshima, Kobe, Nagoya, Shizuoka, Karuizawa, Niigata and Sendai \u2014 hope to host the world leaders of Japan, the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada, Germany and Italy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The candidate cities have emphasized, in addition to their various cultural assets, their preparedness in the event of a security threat. Meanwhile, this year\u2019s Tokyo Marathon saw an unprecedented level of police protection for the runners and those watching them, while security for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could be some of the toughest ever seen. […]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Enemies of the State?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[…] However, former Aum members are not the [Public Security Intelligence Agency\u2019s] only concern. Another four pages are devoted to the activities of groups trying to stop the construction of a replacement facility at Henoko for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, voicing support for keeping the 1995 Kono Statement regarding the \u201ccomfort women,\u201d criticizing the government\u2019s pro-nuclear energy policy, or protesting collective self-defense and the state secrets law that went into effect late last year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the case of the Henoko protesters, the Public Security Intelligence Agency says \u201cJapan Communist Party \u2026 members and other anti-base activists from around the country are being dispatched to the Henoko area to engage in protests against the new facility.\u201d The agency also says the Japan Communist Party mobilized supporters to assist two anti-base candidates in local elections last year: Susumu Inamine won the January 2014 Nago mayoral election, while Takashi Onaga won the November gubernatorial election running on anti-base platforms.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Over three pages, the Public Security Intelligence Agency claimed \u201cextremist\u201d groups were cooperating with overseas organizations to criticize the government\u2019s position on the comfort women issue<\/a>, and that the Japan Communist Party was involved in anti-nuclear demonstrations in Sendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, and in front of the Diet and the prime<\/em> minister\u2019s office. It further added that extremist groups were infiltrating anti-nuclear demonstrations and passing out flyers that called for all nuclear reactors to be decommissioned.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two pages were devoted solely to the Japan Communist Party\u2019s leadership and membership, and its criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government. The Public Security Intelligence Agency said the Japan Communist Party\u2019s total membership is around 305,000, down from 410,000 back in 2010, while the average age of all members was 57 years old, up from 55.7 years old five years earlier.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By contrast, only 2\u00bd of the report\u2019s 75 pages were devoted to right-wing groups. The agency said right-wing groups had been involved in protests over the Senaku Islands, had called for the retraction of the Kono Statement on comfort women and had used the Asahi Shimbun\u2019s apology in August over a story on wartime forced prostitutes as an opportunity to conduct protests at the newspaper\u2019s branches nationwide.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There was no mention, by name, in the Public Security Intelligence Agency report of Zaitokukai, merely of a \u201cright-wing-affiliated group\u201d that made racist remarks. However, a separate report put out by the National Policy Agency earlier this month mentioned Zaitokukai by name and noted that 1,654 members of right-wing groups were charged with breaking the law in 2014. This included 291 people who were charged with extortion, although many charges were for traffic-related violations. […]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Among other things, the law attempts to promote increased police monitoring of whomever the government deems a potential threat by making secret materials or plans to prevent \u201cdesignated harmful activities.\u201d What\u2019s a \u201cdesignated harmful activity\u201d? That\u2019s the first of many questions as yet unanswered.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same with measures designed to prevent \u201cterrorism,\u201d an ill-defined legal concept, and critics of the law have warned that, under the pretext of \u201csecurity,\u201d Japan will see more police monitoring of any individual or group the state deems to be a threat.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last July, a lawyers\u2019 group for victims of police investigations of Muslims submitted a report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on systemic surveillance and profiling of Muslims. In 2010, a report leaked on the Internet showed police collected and stored detailed personal information on Muslims in Japan. Seventeen victims sued the Metropolitan Police Department and the National Policy Agency over the issue<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In January 2014, Tokyo District Court ordered the metropolitan police to pay for violating the plaintiffs\u2019 privacy by leaking personal data. However, the court also said police information gathering activities on Muslims in Japan constituted \u201cnecessary and inevitable measures for the prevention of international terrorism.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The case is being appealed in the Tokyo High Court, but the initial ruling came down well before Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto were captured and executed by Islamic State militants earlier this year. Given the public shock and political reaction to those killings, extreme security measures of questionable legality are cause for worry, says Lawrence Repeta, a law professor at Meiji University<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the fact that the police had no evidence of illegal activities, the record shows they engaged in religious profiling of the Muslim community,\u201d Repeta says. \u201cNow that this intrusive police surveillance has been approved by the court, we should expect it to continue in coming years, as Japan hosts international events like next year\u2019s Group of Seven conference and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[…] One bright spot was that, despite years of official bureaucratic and right-wing political warnings about the dangers of foreign crime<\/a>, only 28 percent of respondents in 2012 cited this as a reason for what they felt was a worsening security environment. This is down from the 55 percent who cited it as a major reason for their unease in the 2006 survey.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article in order at http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2015\/03\/21\/national\/security-blanket-japan-beef-anti-terrorism-measures\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Related to the increasingly tightening domestic security over Japanese society in the wake of attacks on Japanese citizens abroad, here is an overlooked article by Eric Johnston in the Japan Times a few days ago. It’s a long one, with contents excerpted below as germane to Debito.org. As we have talked in detail in the wake of other wakes, e.g., the G8 Summit in Hokkaido, the G8 Summit in Nago, the 2002 World Cup, other anti-democratic habits brought out in Japanese society whenever Japan holds an international event, and also a longstanding theory that Gaijin are mere Guinea Pigs (since they have fewer civil or political rights) to test out pupal public policy before applying it to the rest of the Japanese population, I believe what’s going on here is a long arc of further eroding Postwar civil liberties in the name of security and ever-strengthening police power in Japan — in favor of rightist elements. Read on:<\/p>\n

JT: However, former Aum members are not the [Public Security Intelligence Agency\u2019s] only concern. Another four pages are devoted to the activities of groups trying to stop the construction of a replacement facility at Henoko for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, voicing support for keeping the 1995 Kono Statement regarding the \u201ccomfort women,\u201d criticizing the government\u2019s pro-nuclear energy policy, or protesting collective self-defense and the state secrets law that went into effect late last year…<\/p>\n

Over three pages, the Public Security Intelligence Agency claimed \u201cextremist\u201d groups were cooperating with overseas organizations to criticize the government\u2019s position on the comfort women issue, and that the Japan Communist Party was involved in anti-nuclear demonstrations in Sendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, and in front of the Diet and the prime minister\u2019s office… Two pages were devoted solely to the Japan Communist Party\u2019s leadership and membership, and its criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government… By contrast, only 2\u00bd of the report\u2019s 75 pages were devoted to right-wing groups…. There was no mention, by name, in the Public Security Intelligence Agency report of Zaitokukai…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,42,50,5,26,4,10,14,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-social-science","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-g8-summit","category-gaiatsu","category-human-rights","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-japanese-politics","category-sitys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}