This is an infuriating and sad event. It's also the first time I have seen the members of the Japanese parliament embroiled in an in-your-face shouting match that looked perilously close to coming to blows.
As an American, the demise of the rule of law in my own country was really hard to go through. As an expat now living in Japan, one of the awesome things about being here was that although it's a wildly different environment and culture, the rule of law, freedom of speech, and fundamental democracy have been unquestioned. If you violate the law, and are caught, there are consequences -- like it was the USA of my youth.
This isn't just a 'secrecy' law; as (vaguely) written, it is also a censorship law that goes even further than the US 'PATRIOT' act. You can theoretically be imprisoned for a tweet, or a peaceful gathering, or basically if the government just waves its hands and mumbles 'terrorism'.
This kind of law was one of the main lubricants for the United States's ignominious slide into unlawful, unconstitutional depravity: kidnapping, imprisonment without charge, assassination, murder, torture. Once something can not be found out -- or cannot be published or discussed even if it is found out -- the government and various bad actors within it have a shield that lets them ignore the law or the constitution and do what the fuck they want.
I don't envision Japan going as bad as America any time soon -- it has, after all been the most peaceful major nation of the last 65 years, having not exercised military aggression toward any nation in that time.[1]
But still, the degradation of a democratic society is something to be lamented. And America's role in overturning its own best legacy is shameful.
[1]: But: one (unsubstantiated) theory I have heard floated is that this was rammed through as a presage to a secret Japanese nuclear weapons program. With China becoming an increasingly aggressive and hostile bad actor in Asia, using its military to make wild bombastic threats against Japan (and Vietnam, and the Philippines), unilaterally trying to assert ownership over more and more territory in the region, Japan has found itself in a situation that looks more and more like the USSR-era Cold War -- but with no hope other than to rely on the US for protection.
The largest low crime country in world history, using terrorism as a straw-man to destroy freedom of speech, with heavy pressure from the first country to properly enshrine freedom of speech into a constitution. What is the world coming to....
I'm not sure what all of this qualifies as, if not a wave of fascism enveloping the globe. Not so different from the authoritarian waves that occurred in the 20th century (lest anyone thought such things were somehow impossible just because a few decades had passed).
As an American, the demise of the rule of law in my own country was really hard to go through. As an expat now living in Japan, one of the awesome things about being here was that although it's a wildly different environment and culture, the rule of law, freedom of speech, and fundamental democracy have been unquestioned. If you violate the law, and are caught, there are consequences -- like it was the USA of my youth.
This isn't just a 'secrecy' law; as (vaguely) written, it is also a censorship law that goes even further than the US 'PATRIOT' act. You can theoretically be imprisoned for a tweet, or a peaceful gathering, or basically if the government just waves its hands and mumbles 'terrorism'.
This kind of law was one of the main lubricants for the United States's ignominious slide into unlawful, unconstitutional depravity: kidnapping, imprisonment without charge, assassination, murder, torture. Once something can not be found out -- or cannot be published or discussed even if it is found out -- the government and various bad actors within it have a shield that lets them ignore the law or the constitution and do what the fuck they want.
I don't envision Japan going as bad as America any time soon -- it has, after all been the most peaceful major nation of the last 65 years, having not exercised military aggression toward any nation in that time.[1]
But still, the degradation of a democratic society is something to be lamented. And America's role in overturning its own best legacy is shameful.
[1]: But: one (unsubstantiated) theory I have heard floated is that this was rammed through as a presage to a secret Japanese nuclear weapons program. With China becoming an increasingly aggressive and hostile bad actor in Asia, using its military to make wild bombastic threats against Japan (and Vietnam, and the Philippines), unilaterally trying to assert ownership over more and more territory in the region, Japan has found itself in a situation that looks more and more like the USSR-era Cold War -- but with no hope other than to rely on the US for protection.