Quasi-regime on Rule of Law

Ministry of Defense filed a complaint to Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism against the repeal of approval for construction of new United States military base in Henoko by Governor of Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga. While there is a law that Japanese people can complain against policy of government, it has been applied to the cases of opposition between government and private citizen. It is questioned that the central government has arbitrarily taken advantage of the law.

As deliberately planned, MOD submitted on Wednesday necessary documents to counter Onaga’s decision of halting landfill in Henoko, which were immediately accepted as complaint by MLIT. The appeal also included decision of stopping power of Onaga’s repeal until MLIT would conclude on the complaint, expecting construction to be continued during the consideration.

MLIT required Onaga to submit opinion on MOD’s dispute by 22^nd of this month. It is likely that MLIT will start examine the complaint from MOD and conclude that Onaga’s repeal should be void as false decision. That is because Onaga is unlikely to answer it. Instead, the most likely scenario is that Onaga will appeal to Committee for Managing Dispute between National and Local Governments. Meanwhile, Onaga will indict national government to stop construction of the base in Henoko, if MOD ignore his decision of repeal. It will be highly unusual trial, which may be called Okinawa v. Japanese Government.

But,　the opposition of national government is based on a questionable reason. Administrative Appeal Act was legislated for relieving the people who suffered from unilateral and false execution of policy by national or local government. National government took advantage of this law to counter Onaga’s policy, as if it were a private citizen. “National government can be a plaintiff, if it is affected by a policy of national or local government,” told Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga.

One obvious fact is, however, one Minister is considering an appeal submitted by another Minister named by the same Prime Minister. One can easily understand that no different decision will be made between Ministers in the same Cabinet. “It should be inappropriate for a Minister to request another Minister a examination in a situation that Henoko is an only plan for the relocation in national government,” told Onaga in his statement. A government which policy is applied with arbitrary motivation can hardly be recognized as a democracy.