Exploiting Anti-terrorist Measure for Oppression

Shinzo Abe administration submitted a bill of revised Organized Crime Punishment Law to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The bill added new concept of crime of preparing terrorism, which would actually be paralleled with crime of conspiracy, to the legal system for the first time in post-war Japan. The government that oppressed innocent political enemies with suspect of anti-national ideology is sneaking into what the people are thinking in their mind once again.

Abe administration insists on the necessity of the legislation for ratifying United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime 2000. “We need to lay a perfect posture to prevent organized crime including terrorism before Tokyo Olympic and Paralympics Games three years later. We hope the Diet to pass the bill as soon as possible,” told Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

The opposite parties are firmly protesting the bill. “The concept of crime of preparing terrorism in the bill makes no difference from crime of conspiracy. We will disturb the moves for getting into actual discussion on it or passing the bill,” told Chairman of Diet Affairs Committee in Democratic Party, Kazunori Yamanoi. The opposite parties are integrated for opposing the bill, designating it as the most controversial issue in this session.

The U.N. convention requires the parties to legislate an agreement of activating serious crime as a crime. Encouraged by the international trend of stricter prevention of terrorism, Japanese government submitted bills for creating crime of conspiracy three times between 2003 and 2005, all of which were turned down. The government tried to punish a group simply agreeing for crime. While the convention targeted terrorist groups, Japanese government focused on ordinary people in its own country.

The bill this time limited the target to terrorist group or other organized criminal group with actual and realistic plan of crime and with activity for preparation based on the plan. As seen, however, the target is not only terrorist, but “other organized criminal group,” which means that everyone can be included in the criminal, if the government did not like him or her. This kind of arbitrariness is always built in the laws in Japan to enhance state power over the people.

Japan Federation of Bar Association opposes the bill, arguing that current laws already cover necessary measures against terrorism. If Japanese government need higher security against terrorism, it would be better for them to look for the way to take good advantage of current laws.