24 Jan 2014 – <\/i>Last month, the ruling Japanese coalition parties quickly rammed through Parliament a state secrets law. We Americans better take notice.<\/p>\n
Under its provisions the government alone decides what are state secrets and any civil servants who divulge any \u201csecrets\u201d can be jailed for up to 10 years. Journalists caught in the web of this vaguely defined law can be jailed for up to 5 years.<\/p>\n
Government officials have been upset at the constant disclosures of their laxity by regulatory officials before and after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster in 2011, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).<\/p>\n
Week after week, reports appear in the press revealing the seriousness of the contaminated water flow, the inaccessible radioactive material deep inside these reactors and the need to stop these leaking sites from further poisoning the land, food and ocean. Officials now estimate that it could take up to 40 years to clean up and decommission the reactors.<\/p>\n
Other factors are also feeding this sure sign of a democratic setback. Militarism is raising its democracy-menacing head, prompted by friction with China over the South China Sea. Dismayingly, U.S. militarists are pushing for a larger Japanese military budget. China is the latest national security justification for our \u201cpivot to East Asia\u201d provoked in part by our military-industrial complex.<\/p>\n
Draconian secrecy in government and fast-tracking bills through legislative bodies are bad omens for freedom of the Japanese press and freedom to dissent by the Japanese people. Freedom of information and robust debate (the latter cut off sharply by Japan\u2019s parliament in December 5, 2013) are the currencies of democracy.<\/p>\n
There is good reason why the New York Times<\/i> continues to cover the deteriorating conditions in the desolate, evacuated Fukushima area. Our country has licensed many reactors here with the same designs and many of the same inadequate safety and inspection standards. Some reactors here are near earthquake faults with surrounding populations which cannot be safely evacuated in case of serious damage to the electric plant. The two Indian Point aging reactors that are 30 miles north of New York City are a case in point.<\/p>\n
The less we are able to know about the past and present conditions of Fukushima, the less we will learn about atomic reactors in our own country.<\/p>\n
Fortunately many of Japan\u2019s most famous scientists, including Nobel laureates, Toshihide Maskawa and Hideki Shirakawa, have led the opposition against this new state secrecy legislation with 3,000 academics signing a public letter of protest. These scientists and academics declared the government\u2019s secrecy law a threat to \u201cthe pacifist principles and fundamental human rights established by the constitution and should be rejected immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following this statement, the Japan Scientists\u2019 Association, Japan\u2019s mass media companies, citizens associations, lawyers\u2019 organizations and some regional legislatures opposed the legislation. Polls show the public also opposes this attack on democracy. The present ruling parties remain adamant. They cite as reasons for state secrecy \u201cnational security and fighting terrorism.\u201d Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
History is always present in the minds of many Japanese people. They know what happened in Japan when the unchallenged slide toward militarization of Japanese society led to the intimidating tyranny that drove the invasion of China, Korea and Southeast Asia before and after Pearl Harbor. By 1945, Japan was in ruins, ending with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<\/p>\n
The American people have to be alert to our government\u2019s needless military and political provocations of China, which is worried about encirclement by surrounding U.S.-allied nations and U.S. air and sea power. Washington might better turn immediate attention to U.S. trade policies that have facilitated U.S. companies shipping American jobs and whole industries to China.<\/p>\n
The Obama administration must become more alert to authoritarian trends in Japan that its policies have been either encouraging or knowingly ignoring \u2013 often behind the curtains of our own chronic secrecy.<\/p>\n
The lessons of history beckon.<\/p>\n
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Ralph Nader is one of America\u2019s most effective social critics. Named by <\/i>The Atlantic<\/em> as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history, and by <\/i>Time <\/em>and <\/i>Life <\/em>magazines as one of the hundred most influential Americans of the twentieth century, his documented criticism of government and industry has had widespread effect on public awareness and bureaucratic power. He is the \u201cU.S.\u2019s toughest customer\u201d says <\/i>Time <\/em>magazine. His inspiration and example have galvanized a whole population of consumer advocates, citizen activists, and public interest lawyers who in turn have established their own organizations throughout the country.<\/i><\/p>\n