{"id":94011,"date":"2017-06-19T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=94011"},"modified":"2017-06-16T12:42:58","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T11:42:58","slug":"japans-terrible-anti-terror-law-just-made-the-minority-report-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/06\/japans-terrible-anti-terror-law-just-made-the-minority-report-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Terrible Anti-Terror Law Just Made \u2018The Minority Report\u2019 Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abe government makes even pondering crimes cause for arrest, with a U.N.-condemned \u2018anti-terrorism\u2019 law that hits mushroom-hunters and music teachers, but not actual terrorists.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Toru Hana\/Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

15 Jun 2017 – <\/em>On Thursday morning, Japan\u2019s deceptively dubbed \u201canti-terrorism\u201d bill was steamrolled into law by its parliament, after the ruling coalition gutted standard legislative protocol, avoiding more embarrassing questions about the bill known as the \u201ccriminal-conspiracy law.\u201d It stipulates 277 crimes that police can arrest people for planning, or simply discussing. Technically, because social media is covered in the legislation, even liking a related tweet or retweeting it could now be grounds for arrest on conspiracy charges.<\/p>\n

Ironically, none of the 277 crimes have to do with terrorism, despite the name of the law. However, if you were planning to hunt mushrooms illegally or stage a boat race without a license\u2014well think again, evildoers. You\u2019ll be stopped in your tracks.<\/p>\n

The essence of the law is simple: It allows law-enforcers to arrest and prosecute those who plan and prepare crimes even if those crimes are not carried out. There are 277 specific crimes that can be prosecuted for conspiracy, and possibly even more if the law is loosely interpreted.<\/p>\n

However, as the contents were debated in the parliament, it became clear that the legislation was not only terrifying in the latitude it gives police but also terribly written. Ministry of Justice officials admitted that people could be arrested and convicted for conspiring to illegally hunt mushrooms (forestry laws) or go fishing. Often they were stumped for answers. Japan\u2019s Lawyer Federation also pointed out that other terrible crimes covered under the law include copyright violations\u2014such as copying sheet music, or a sit-down protest opposing the building of a condominium.<\/p>\n

Of course, we all know that music teachers, mushroom hunters, and anti-condominium radicals are dangers to society, but do we need to proactively jail them? Yes, of course, we may need to. At least in Japan.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s administration shamelessly claimed the bill was necessary for Japan to comply with the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, a claim that U.N. experts ridiculed. The government then claimed it was needed to strengthen Japan\u2019s counterterror measures before the 2020 Olympics. The legislation was originally dubbed the Criminal Conspiracy bill, but the name was changed to \u201cTerrorism and Other Crime Preparations,\u201d ostensibly to make it sound more palatable. The original bill had over 600 crimes. But as the Japanese Federation of Lawyers pointed out, \u201cEven with a change in name, the bill is just as flawed and dangerous.\u201d However, the rebranding did help get more favorable responses in public-opinion polls conducted after the bill was resubmitted.<\/p>\n

In many other countries, empowering police to arrest people on such a wide range of pretexts might not be so bad, but in Japan authorities can hold a suspect for as long as 23 days<\/a>, with no right for the accused to have a lawyer present before the decision to file charges. For those indicted, the conviction rate is close to 99 percent.<\/p>\n

Japanese legal expert Colin P.A. Jones<\/a> noted in an op-ed, \u201cDuring this period, [the police] can question suspects from dawn until dusk, with limited access to a lawyer. Moreover, although a suspect may be arrested for one crime, it may be a pretext for investigating another, leading to further arrests that restart the detention clock. Thus, without conspiracy being added to the mix, Japanese law-enforcement authorities already have broad powers to punish people they don\u2019t like without ever putting them on trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, after police arrested Mark Karpeles, the CEO of failed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, on minor charges, he refused to confess to stealing its missing 650,000 units of the cryptocurrency (at current prices, around $16 billion). Police then kept arresting him on separate charges, in hopes he\u2019d crack. Eventually he was arrested and indicted so many times the presiding judge chewed out prosecutors and ordered them to stop dragging out the detention.<\/p>\n

If you think Japanese police won\u2019t abuse their new powers, think again. They have a record of abusing the powers they already have<\/em>. This includes arresting club owners for allowing dancing after midnight. In January, the Saitama police arrested three anti-nuclear activists on bizarre charges. The alleged crime: Sharing the costs of a rental van<\/a> for visiting meltdown-devastated Fukushima, which the police decided was \u201coperating an unlicensed taxi service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Public Security Division of most Japanese police departments even has a slang word for the last resort in arresting a suspected radical: \u201ckorobikobou<\/em>.\u201d This essentially involves an officer bumping into a suspect and then arresting them for obstruction of police performance of duties (Article 95 of the Criminal Code) and holding them in detention for as long as possible, interrogating them at leisure.<\/p>\n

Giving police an arsenal of pretexts to arrest anyone is a recipe for crushing civil liberties<\/a>, as Joseph Cannataci, United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy, pointed out in his letter to the Abe administration \u00a0warning of the dangers of the legislation. The new law is remarkably similar to the 1925 Peace Preservation laws, which the fascist government of Japan used to round up its critics, all communists, and war dissenters. When those laws were passed, just as they are now, the Japanese government claimed the laws would never be used to target ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n

That was not the case.<\/p>\n

The Abe administration, by the way, still classifies the pacifist and populist \u00a0Japanese Communist Party, which has large popular support<\/a>, as a \u201cdangerous group<\/a>\u201d\u2014the kind of group these new conspiracy laws will target. They\u2019re about as dangerous as a schoolteacher. But at least the police will have some people to arrest.<\/p>\n

The debate leading up to the passage of the bill had elements of dark comedy or political farce that induced both laughter and dumbfounded dismay. Not only was the discussion of mushroom hunting as funding for terrorist activity ludicrous, but it was revealed that the usage of forged postage stamps could also be grounds for prosecution. Terrorists: Put away those rogue postcards.<\/p>\n

There was hardly a chance that the law wouldn\u2019t be passed with the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito having enough numbers to railroad the legislation into law, as they have been doing since 2013. There were massive protests<\/a> by not just the usual leftover liberal hippies but students and young people as well. None of it mattered.<\/p>\n

In the end, Abe\u2019s ruling coalition resorted to the almost-unprecedented tactic of bypassing committee-level approval of the bill in the upper house, cutting off further debate, and thwarted all attempts to block the bill. Ren H\u014d, the leader of Japan\u2019s opposition party, accused the government of ramrodding the bill to cover up its \u201cKake Gakuen problem,\u201d which involves Abe\u2019s alleged misuse of power in the licensing of a school.<\/p>\n

Ren H\u014d jeered, \u201cWhat\u2019s the rush? You don\u2019t want us to bring up the Kake Gakuen scandal again? The way the bill is being rammed into law seems to represent the government\u2019s wish to hurry up and end the parliament session.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed the fight over the conspiracy law has at least temporarily slowed questions about the Abe administration\u2019s own alleged conspiring\u2014reportedly to block investigations into its own corruption, hide official documents, defame political opponents<\/a>, and other scandals.<\/p>\n

Abe cabinet officials also indicated Wednesday they intend to have the government employee(s) turned whistleblowers in the Kake Gakuen<\/a> scandal arrested for violations of its civil servants act (disclosing confidential information). Understanding Japanese law, people can\u2019t be arrested for conspiring to blow the whistle on malfeasance by the government. However, it can only be a matter of time before telling the truth is tacked onto the list or pre-crimes\u2014or rather, conspiring to tell the truth. The best way to fight crimes is to make sure they never happen, of course. And that\u2019s today\u2019s minority report from Japan.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993. Considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He is also an advisor to NPO Polaris Project Japan, which combats human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex trade. He is the author of\u00a0<\/em>Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan<\/a>\u00a0(Vintage) and the forthcoming, <\/em>The Last Yakuza: A Life in the Japanese Underworld.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thedailybeast.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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