Last year, the opposition parties submitted the bill for "Hate Speech Regulation Act", but voting was postponed because the diet came to conclusion "the definition of hate speech is unclear". Now, the ruling party (LDP and Komeito coalition) is submitting their own version of bill for "Hate Speech Regulation Act" to the Diet.
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As reported earlier, some cabinet ministers from LDP are befriending with notorious racist organization called "Zaitokukai" (right-wing nationalist).... It is skeptical if the ruling party is serious about protecting ethnic Koreans in Japan, the main target whom "Zaitokukai" attacks.
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Takashi Nagao, a cabinet member of LDP and the member of Japan Conference, explained about this bill at Channel Sakura (a Japanese TV channel and video-sharing website to promote Japanese right-wing and nationalist points of view. It hosted Abe and right wing politicians/intellectuals mainly to discuss topics about positive portrayal of Japanese imperialism, war crime denial, anti-Korean and anti-Chinese sentiments as well as attempting to present a "pure" Japanese cultural image.). The purpose of Nagao's presentation was to ease the fear of "Zaitokukai" like minded rightist supporters of LDP.
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Nagao explained them "no penalty for violating this law", "it is not like Human rights protection bill" and "no third party organization". However, the audience of Channel sakura was still complaining to Nagao thru SNS, "if it is illegal for Japanese to tell "get out" to ethnic Korean, it is dicrimination against Japanese." Nagao tweeted back, "this regulation is applicable if hate speech is meant to drive US soldiers out of Japan".
.
The bill submitted by LDP has the provision that the law is applicable for the hate-speech against "foreign-born residents and their descendants in Japan", but the treatment of ethnic Koreans is in gray-zone . The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, often known simply as Zainichi ,who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan. The term "Zainichi Korean" refers only to long-term Korean residents of Japan who trace their roots to Korea under Japanese rule. ("Zainichi Korean" is main target of the attack by "Zaitokukai") Japanese nationality was forced to them under colonial rule. (as Korea was part of Japan at that time, it is vague if their status can be defined as "foreign born".)
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Anti-hate speech bills likely headed for Diet consideration
AJW by Asahi Shimbun : 6 April 2016
Debate over regulating hate speech targeting ethnic minorities in Japan is finally likely to begin soon in the Diet, with the ruling coalition expected to submit its long-awaited draft bill as early as next week.
Katsuei Hirasawa, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who heads a team to address the issue, on April 5 proclaimed the draft as “significant.”
“Although the bill does not come with a provision to punish violators, it is significant that we have shown our attitude against hate speech,” he said.
But it is unclear whether effective legislation will be enacted as many lawmakers acknowledge the difficulty in ensuring freedom of speech while regulating racism. The main opposition Democratic Party and other opposition parties submitted their own anti-hate speech legislation last May.
The opposition's version also does not include penalties for those violating the law.
The push to enact an anti-hate speech law follows a call by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
In a recommendation in August 2014, the committee urged the government to pass and enforce a law regulating hate speech by Zaitokukai and other groups blaring discriminatory and menacing taunts at their street rallies.
Zaitokukai, formed in 2006, is short for the Japanese name of the group that is roughly translated as a group of citizens who oppose privileges for ethnic Korean residents in Japan.
It has been aggressively criticizing ethnic Koreans, staging rallies in front of a Korean school in Kyoto and in neighborhoods that host ethnic Koreans in Tokyo and Osaka.
The LDP moved swiftly to set up a team examining the issue in August 2014, but it has dragged its feet until recently to regulate it.
The proposed legislation by the LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, defines hate speech as “wrongful discriminatory words and deeds that are intended to fuel or encourage a sense of discrimination against so as to incite a movement to exclude (the targets) from a local community” targeting foreign residents and families.
The LDP was initially reluctant to define hate speech in the bill, citing potential gaps, but acceded at the prodding of Komeito.
The bill states in the preamble that “wrongful discriminatory words and deeds will not be permitted.”
The draft calls on the central and local governments to offer counseling services and programs to educate the public against hate speech and racial discrimination.
The opposition parties' draft bill prohibits “insults, harassment and other wrongful discriminatory words based on race and other reasons” and states that “no one should undertake wrongful, discriminatory statements and actions.”
Differing from the ruling coalition’s version, the opposition draft clearly spells out the government's responsibility in addressing the issue.
The opposition calls on a panel tasked with tackling racial discrimination to be set up in the Cabinet Office, probe important matters regarding discrimination and issue warnings to government ministries and agencies over suspected cases.
The opposition bloc seeks to hold talks with ruling coalition lawmakers to explore whether they can integrate the two bills.
Legislators acknowledge that they will have to work more to give teeth to the legislation.
Speaking of the ruling coalition's bill, Toshio Ogawa, the Democratic Party’s director-general in the Upper House and a former judge, said, “The police would have no legal grounds to deny an application for a rally that is aimed at spewing hate speech. And police would not be able to do anything at the site.”
Kiyohiko Toyama, a Komeito member in the Lower House, expressed concerns about the opposition’s legislation, citing possible infringement of freedom of speech.
“In an extreme case, police on the street could clamp down on (demonstrators) if they deem (their actions) as discriminatory,” he said. “It raises questions about the compatibility with freedom of expression.”
The central government, in its first-ever survey, confirmed 1,152 cases of hate speech demonstrations and campaigns between April 2012 and September 2015.
Although such incidences declined somewhat in 2015, the government described the situation as “not quietening down.”
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201604060055.html
Infringing the Freedom to Hate
Shingetsu News Agency : 13 April 2016
SNA (Tokyo) — The global conversation on hate speech has seen a resurgence due to US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s appeals to racism, but hate speech does not exist only within the scope of US presidential elections — in Japan it has been largely unimpeded since the turn of the decade.
On April 8, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito jointly submitted to the House of Councillors a bill seeking to regulate hate speech targeting Zainichi Koreans (Koreans with permanent resident status in Japan). The opposition parties had already submitted a similar bill last May.
Last year’s opposition-sponsored bill crucially included a ban on racial discrimination — but this is not included in the bill submitted by the ruling coalition this month. Both bills fail to stipulate any specific penalties for engaging in hate speech. Even so, the ruling coalition is worried that the opposition’s approach would have been too heavy-handed, and would have infringed on freedom of expression, a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
Although hate speech is not an issue that receives a great deal of public recognition in Japan, violent and aggressive speech targeting resident Koreans has been prevalent in Japan since around 2012. On March 30, the Ministry of Justice released survey results on hate speech targeting specific races and found that from April 2012 to September 2015, there had been 1,152 demonstrations in 29 prefectures by organizations said to be engaging in hate speech.
Of these organizations, the most prominent is the ultra-nationalist Zaitokukai (Citizens’ Association That Will Not Permit Special Privileges for Resident Koreans).
In July 2014, the Zaitokukai was fined 12 million yen (about US$110,000) in reparations by the Osaka High Court — utilizing UN conventions that Japan had signed — for disturbing classes taking place at the Kyoto Korean School. The Zaitokukai reportedly used loudspeakers to make inflammatory statements such as, “Cockroaches, maggots, go back to the Korean Peninsula.” The Zaitokukai appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court, but this was rejected.
In August 2014, the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, after watching videos of anti-Korean demonstrations taking place in Japan, recommended Japan to ban hate speech. Committee members were reportedly very harsh on the Japanese government, claiming that a ban on hate speech would not infringe freedom of expression.
During this time, when international pressure to ban hate speech was escalating, media sources reported a connection between the Abe Cabinet and the Zaitokukai. In late 2014, a photo of Eriko Yamatani, then the minister overseeing the National Police Agency, posing with Shigeo Masuki, a former official of the Zaitokukai, became a subject of controversy. In a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on September 25, 2014, Yamatani was grilled by journalists on this subject. Yamatani responded that she did not have a relationship with Masuki, despite him saying that he had known her for fifteen years. She also failed to specifically reject the Zaitokukai’s worldview.
During the same time period, photos of Tomomi Inada, the Liberal Democratic Party’s policy chief, and Sanae Takaichi, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, posing with a leader of a neo-Nazi organization in Japan, also surfaced on the web.
Many voices within Japan’s ruling party have argued that banning hate speech raises concerns from the perspective of protecting the freedom of expression. Ironically, however, it is the Abe administration itself that is now becoming a focus of international concern regarding its own alleged attempts to intimidate the news media. For example, Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statement this February that the government could shut down “biased” broadcasters sits in an uncomfortable relationship to the view of some ruling party lawmakers that those who engage in hate speech may simply be exercising their free speech rights.
The bill submitted by the ruling coalition does not include a ban on hate speech, and probably does not satisfy the UN’s demands for decisive legislative action.
Nobuaki Masaki is a contributing writer to the Shingetsu News Agency.
http://shingetsunewsagency.com/2016/04/13/infringing-the-freedom-to-hate/
.
As reported earlier, some cabinet ministers from LDP are befriending with notorious racist organization called "Zaitokukai" (right-wing nationalist).... It is skeptical if the ruling party is serious about protecting ethnic Koreans in Japan, the main target whom "Zaitokukai" attacks.
.
Takashi Nagao, a cabinet member of LDP and the member of Japan Conference, explained about this bill at Channel Sakura (a Japanese TV channel and video-sharing website to promote Japanese right-wing and nationalist points of view. It hosted Abe and right wing politicians/intellectuals mainly to discuss topics about positive portrayal of Japanese imperialism, war crime denial, anti-Korean and anti-Chinese sentiments as well as attempting to present a "pure" Japanese cultural image.). The purpose of Nagao's presentation was to ease the fear of "Zaitokukai" like minded rightist supporters of LDP.
.
Nagao explained them "no penalty for violating this law", "it is not like Human rights protection bill" and "no third party organization". However, the audience of Channel sakura was still complaining to Nagao thru SNS, "if it is illegal for Japanese to tell "get out" to ethnic Korean, it is dicrimination against Japanese." Nagao tweeted back, "this regulation is applicable if hate speech is meant to drive US soldiers out of Japan".
.
The bill submitted by LDP has the provision that the law is applicable for the hate-speech against "foreign-born residents and their descendants in Japan", but the treatment of ethnic Koreans is in gray-zone . The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, often known simply as Zainichi ,who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan. The term "Zainichi Korean" refers only to long-term Korean residents of Japan who trace their roots to Korea under Japanese rule. ("Zainichi Korean" is main target of the attack by "Zaitokukai") Japanese nationality was forced to them under colonial rule. (as Korea was part of Japan at that time, it is vague if their status can be defined as "foreign born".)
......................................................
Anti-hate speech bills likely headed for Diet consideration
AJW by Asahi Shimbun : 6 April 2016
Debate over regulating hate speech targeting ethnic minorities in Japan is finally likely to begin soon in the Diet, with the ruling coalition expected to submit its long-awaited draft bill as early as next week.
Katsuei Hirasawa, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who heads a team to address the issue, on April 5 proclaimed the draft as “significant.”
“Although the bill does not come with a provision to punish violators, it is significant that we have shown our attitude against hate speech,” he said.
But it is unclear whether effective legislation will be enacted as many lawmakers acknowledge the difficulty in ensuring freedom of speech while regulating racism. The main opposition Democratic Party and other opposition parties submitted their own anti-hate speech legislation last May.
The opposition's version also does not include penalties for those violating the law.
The push to enact an anti-hate speech law follows a call by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
In a recommendation in August 2014, the committee urged the government to pass and enforce a law regulating hate speech by Zaitokukai and other groups blaring discriminatory and menacing taunts at their street rallies.
Zaitokukai, formed in 2006, is short for the Japanese name of the group that is roughly translated as a group of citizens who oppose privileges for ethnic Korean residents in Japan.
It has been aggressively criticizing ethnic Koreans, staging rallies in front of a Korean school in Kyoto and in neighborhoods that host ethnic Koreans in Tokyo and Osaka.
The LDP moved swiftly to set up a team examining the issue in August 2014, but it has dragged its feet until recently to regulate it.
The proposed legislation by the LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, defines hate speech as “wrongful discriminatory words and deeds that are intended to fuel or encourage a sense of discrimination against so as to incite a movement to exclude (the targets) from a local community” targeting foreign residents and families.
The LDP was initially reluctant to define hate speech in the bill, citing potential gaps, but acceded at the prodding of Komeito.
The bill states in the preamble that “wrongful discriminatory words and deeds will not be permitted.”
The draft calls on the central and local governments to offer counseling services and programs to educate the public against hate speech and racial discrimination.
The opposition parties' draft bill prohibits “insults, harassment and other wrongful discriminatory words based on race and other reasons” and states that “no one should undertake wrongful, discriminatory statements and actions.”
Differing from the ruling coalition’s version, the opposition draft clearly spells out the government's responsibility in addressing the issue.
The opposition calls on a panel tasked with tackling racial discrimination to be set up in the Cabinet Office, probe important matters regarding discrimination and issue warnings to government ministries and agencies over suspected cases.
The opposition bloc seeks to hold talks with ruling coalition lawmakers to explore whether they can integrate the two bills.
Legislators acknowledge that they will have to work more to give teeth to the legislation.
Speaking of the ruling coalition's bill, Toshio Ogawa, the Democratic Party’s director-general in the Upper House and a former judge, said, “The police would have no legal grounds to deny an application for a rally that is aimed at spewing hate speech. And police would not be able to do anything at the site.”
Kiyohiko Toyama, a Komeito member in the Lower House, expressed concerns about the opposition’s legislation, citing possible infringement of freedom of speech.
“In an extreme case, police on the street could clamp down on (demonstrators) if they deem (their actions) as discriminatory,” he said. “It raises questions about the compatibility with freedom of expression.”
The central government, in its first-ever survey, confirmed 1,152 cases of hate speech demonstrations and campaigns between April 2012 and September 2015.
Although such incidences declined somewhat in 2015, the government described the situation as “not quietening down.”
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201604060055.html
Infringing the Freedom to Hate
Shingetsu News Agency : 13 April 2016
SNA (Tokyo) — The global conversation on hate speech has seen a resurgence due to US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s appeals to racism, but hate speech does not exist only within the scope of US presidential elections — in Japan it has been largely unimpeded since the turn of the decade.
On April 8, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito jointly submitted to the House of Councillors a bill seeking to regulate hate speech targeting Zainichi Koreans (Koreans with permanent resident status in Japan). The opposition parties had already submitted a similar bill last May.
Last year’s opposition-sponsored bill crucially included a ban on racial discrimination — but this is not included in the bill submitted by the ruling coalition this month. Both bills fail to stipulate any specific penalties for engaging in hate speech. Even so, the ruling coalition is worried that the opposition’s approach would have been too heavy-handed, and would have infringed on freedom of expression, a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
Although hate speech is not an issue that receives a great deal of public recognition in Japan, violent and aggressive speech targeting resident Koreans has been prevalent in Japan since around 2012. On March 30, the Ministry of Justice released survey results on hate speech targeting specific races and found that from April 2012 to September 2015, there had been 1,152 demonstrations in 29 prefectures by organizations said to be engaging in hate speech.
Of these organizations, the most prominent is the ultra-nationalist Zaitokukai (Citizens’ Association That Will Not Permit Special Privileges for Resident Koreans).
In July 2014, the Zaitokukai was fined 12 million yen (about US$110,000) in reparations by the Osaka High Court — utilizing UN conventions that Japan had signed — for disturbing classes taking place at the Kyoto Korean School. The Zaitokukai reportedly used loudspeakers to make inflammatory statements such as, “Cockroaches, maggots, go back to the Korean Peninsula.” The Zaitokukai appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court, but this was rejected.
In August 2014, the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, after watching videos of anti-Korean demonstrations taking place in Japan, recommended Japan to ban hate speech. Committee members were reportedly very harsh on the Japanese government, claiming that a ban on hate speech would not infringe freedom of expression.
During this time, when international pressure to ban hate speech was escalating, media sources reported a connection between the Abe Cabinet and the Zaitokukai. In late 2014, a photo of Eriko Yamatani, then the minister overseeing the National Police Agency, posing with Shigeo Masuki, a former official of the Zaitokukai, became a subject of controversy. In a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on September 25, 2014, Yamatani was grilled by journalists on this subject. Yamatani responded that she did not have a relationship with Masuki, despite him saying that he had known her for fifteen years. She also failed to specifically reject the Zaitokukai’s worldview.
During the same time period, photos of Tomomi Inada, the Liberal Democratic Party’s policy chief, and Sanae Takaichi, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, posing with a leader of a neo-Nazi organization in Japan, also surfaced on the web.
Many voices within Japan’s ruling party have argued that banning hate speech raises concerns from the perspective of protecting the freedom of expression. Ironically, however, it is the Abe administration itself that is now becoming a focus of international concern regarding its own alleged attempts to intimidate the news media. For example, Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statement this February that the government could shut down “biased” broadcasters sits in an uncomfortable relationship to the view of some ruling party lawmakers that those who engage in hate speech may simply be exercising their free speech rights.
The bill submitted by the ruling coalition does not include a ban on hate speech, and probably does not satisfy the UN’s demands for decisive legislative action.
Nobuaki Masaki is a contributing writer to the Shingetsu News Agency.
http://shingetsunewsagency.com/2016/04/13/infringing-the-freedom-to-hate/
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