Author Topic: Japan's Secrecy Law  (Read 624 times)

MistaNova

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Japan's Secrecy Law
« on: November 26, 2013, 07:29:20 PM »
Not sure if any of you folks here care but I thought I'd bring this up since this seems to be the hot topic in Japan.

Japan Secrecy Law Stirs Fear of Limits on Freedoms
By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press

Japan's more powerful lower house of Parliament approved a state secrecy bill late Tuesday that imposes stiffer penalties on bureaucrats who leak secrets and journalists who seek them, despite criticism the government is making a heavy-handed effort to hide what it's doing and suppress press freedom.

The public is concerned because the government won't say exactly what becomes secret. Critics say the law could allow the government to withhold more information and ultimately undermine Japan's democracy.

The bill was approved after hours of delay due to protests by opposition lawmakers. The ruling block and its supporters hope the weaker upper house will pass the legislation next month.

The ruling party says the law is needed to encourage the United States and other allies to share national security information with Japan. With the creation of a U.S.-style National Security Council in his office, it is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to strengthen Japan's role in global security and create a more authoritarian government at home.

"This law is designed to protect the safety of the people," Abe said, promising to relieve citizens' concerns through further parliamentary debate.

The bill allows heads of ministries and agencies to classify 23 vaguely worded types of information related to defense, diplomacy, counterintelligence and counterterrorism, almost indefinitely.

Critics say it might sway authorities to withhold more information about nuclear power plants, arguing they could become terrorist targets. Or they warn that officials may refuse to disclose key elements of free trade talks to protect concessions that would make Tokyo or a partner look bad.

The move is welcomed by the United States, which wants a stronger Japan to counter China's military rise, but raises fears in Japan that the country could be edging back toward its militaristic past, when authorities severely restrained free speech.

Read the full article here: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/japan-secrecy-law-stirs-fear-limits-freedoms-21013309?singlePage=true

As you can see almost none of the Japanese people are wondering why the Abe administration is in a hurry to please the US by passing this law (worried about leaks to China my ass, the US probably just wants another information laundering hub for the NSA and Abe's expecting something in return), but instead are worried about how they won't be able to voice their opinions anymore. Not like it matters though since the reality is that transperancy in Japan has never existed, anything the mainstream media dishes out is nothing more than government PR and critical thinking is pretty much non-existant in Japan. Ergo, the Japanese are unaware of how freedom of speech is nonexistant and how even if things were more transparent and the Japanese public had more information, they wouldn't do shit with it.
Case in point? Reports about how the Japanese military and government knew about how the US were going to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki before the bombings have been surfacing these past few years, NHK even did a documentary on it, and the public didn't do shit.
 

Aladin

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Re: Japan's Secrecy Law
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2013, 01:56:51 AM »
Your country is a strategic allie of the Unites States.
They try 2 contain Russia and China.

see the link for the ground reality:
http://www.pbase.com/aladin22222/image/149610291
 

Fraxxx

Re: Japan's Secrecy Law
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2013, 03:35:21 AM »
Look at how China is flexing muscles for a long time now. Look at the recent events regarding the Senkaku islands. People are never more willing to accept shit like that law (and like you said, Japanese are willing to accept a lotta shit to begin with) if they feel an exterior (correct wording?) threat. Hell, I bet even the US military presence doesn't look all that bad anymore if the Japanese people think of what China could be like as the sole regional hegemon.
i donīt need any medicate shit im 100 normal.
 

MistaNova

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Re: Japan's Secrecy Law
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2013, 06:49:14 PM »
Your country is a strategic allie of the Unites States.
They try 2 contain Russia and China.

see the link for the ground reality:
http://www.pbase.com/aladin22222/image/149610291

I agree with the trying to contain Russia and China part.
Although Japan is really more of a puppet rather than an ally.

Look at how China is flexing muscles for a long time now. Look at the recent events regarding the Senkaku islands. People are never more willing to accept shit like that law (and like you said, Japanese are willing to accept a lotta shit to begin with) if they feel an exterior (correct wording?) threat. Hell, I bet even the US military presence doesn't look all that bad anymore if the Japanese people think of what China could be like as the sole regional hegemon.

I agree with your post, but judging from how the Japanese are "outraged" at this law (or at least they think they are, more than likely they're just mad because the media is telling them to be mad) it doesn't seem like they took the bait that this was to protect them from China. Then again, I doubt a majority of the population even cares about the stuff going on at the Senkaku islands or what China's been doing.
 

MistaNova

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Re: Japan's Secrecy Law
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2013, 09:33:57 PM »
On a related note the Lower House just passed another legislation to create the NSC for Japan by total vote of 213 to 18 (which goes really well with the "My Number" law that was passed a while back). And the media and public has not made any sort of noise about this (at least not according to my contacts who still live in Japan).

So yeah, the Japanese complains about how the government is making things less transparent and yet they just let these two laws similar laws pass right under their noses out of sheer ignorance (and maybe some self-censorship). Idiots.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2013, 09:40:00 PM by Iveus »
 

Fraxxx

Re: Japan's Secrecy Law
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2013, 11:21:48 AM »
Apparently, there has been a demonstration with thousands of participants against that law in Tokio yesterday. Okay, that might not be too many with 35 million people in the Tokio-Yokohama area but at least it happened...
i donīt need any medicate shit im 100 normal.
 

MistaNova

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Re: Japan's Secrecy Law
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2013, 01:08:58 PM »
The thing about the Japanese is that they've never really opposed the government, a select handful have but there's never been any major revolution or anything. So yeah a handful of people will protest against this law (even though it's futile since other similar laws have already been set in place), but that'll go over as well as the protests against Narita airport. Which is to say that opposition will get squashed and chances are the people will forget about it in a month or two.
 

Fraxxx

Re: Japan's Secrecy Law
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2013, 03:22:34 PM »
I guess that's about right. No wonder they're called the Germans of Asia. How Merkel managed to come out on top with a nearly historic election result after all the shit her administration pulled... People tend to forget so fucking fast.
i donīt need any medicate shit im 100 normal.