Japanese media reported the twenty-fifth anniversary of
Tiananmen Square Massacre on Wednesday through the struggle of Chinese
communist regime to maintain its power. Newspapers highlighted excessive
security of Chinese police with sarcasm on slow progress of fledging democracy
there. Those reports indicated that they simply ignored devolution of democracy
in Japan, in which governmental control on freedom of speech. We cannot laugh
at it.
Asahi cited an episode of a woman who was stripped of her
sport shirt. After a policeman screamed, “What’s this? You, come here,” the
woman had to take off her shirt with number of “89,” which caused police
suspicion about relation with 1989, the year Tiananmen Massacre occurred.
Sankei introduced Chinese intellectuals who escaped sensor of the government
with expressing the day as “May 35th.” They prayed for victims a
quarter century ago with messages like “This is a night of supper with candle.”
There was no difference between the left and right in criticizing brutal
history of China.
Japanese media was also active in reporting criticisms against
Chinese government. They ran stories of expansion of protestors in Hong Kong
from fifty thousands in 1990s to one hundred eighty thousands this year, or request
to China of reevaluation of the massacre by Taiwan President, Ma Ying-jeou.
Yomiuri introduced growing demands in the United States for more pressure on
China, picking consecutive actions of the Congress to denounce the massacre.
Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, released a
general comment to uphold freedom and democracy. “It is highly important that
freedom, respect for basic human rights and rule of law are guaranteed even in
China,” he told. “If human rights activists and lawyers are arrested,” he
added, “it must be a concern. We keep on watching on situation of human
rights.”
Although a number of speakers are not arrested by the
government, condition of human rights is deteriorating in Japan, too. The
National Diet passed Designated Secrecy Act last December, the legislation
which would allow the government concealing inconvenient information forever
and restrict reporters to access sources inside the government.
There is no big difference between Japan and China in terms
of putting governmental power over human rights. It is fair to say that
democracy in Japan is a sort of trickle-down system, in which people
fundamentally believe that good politics is coming down from the top leaders
someday. If this tendency of “powerful government” continues, Japanese politics
will be closer to that of China rather than the Western system. Americans and
Europeans need to realize that they cannot take democratic Japan for granted.
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