Japanese government’s anti-whistleblower crackdown

This video is called The Fukushima Syndrome – Japan.

While the Fukushima disaster gets worse and worse, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan spends time and money not on stopping that terrible threat to health and environment, but on reviving militarism and destroying civil liberties.

From Asahi Shimbun in Japan, 27 August 2013:

KUWAIT CITY–Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized that proper attention will be paid to journalistic rights as his administration pushes to have a state secrets protection bill submitted to the Diet during the autumn session.

Oh yeah, hard liner Shinzo Abe‘s public relations talk aiming to make people sleepy, while he prepares to erode freedoms.

A project team of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party was expected to enter earnest discussions on the state secrets protection bill on Aug. 27.

The Abe administration’s plan, which would set prison terms of up to 10 years for government employees who leak specifically designated confidential state information, has raised concerns over possible restrictions on reporting activities by media organizations.

“Retention of secrets is of utmost importance,” Abe said. “The current system would not allow a (planned Japanese version of the U.S.) national security council to function fully.”

He added that enactment of a state secrets protection law would be a “precondition for sharing information with other countries.”

So, co-operating with other countries’ anti-democratic spying agencies. Like the NSA in the USA. Which spies on millions of civilians, both in the USA and in other countries. Including spying on the government of Japan, supposedly an ally. You don’t hear Abe protesting against that. Only emulating. So, soon millions of United States citizens spied upon not just by “their own” NSA, but by Japanese secret police as well?

With regard to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Aug. 26 remarks that criticized the way Japan’s government and political leaders perceive the history of Northeast Asia, the prime minister only expressed his willingness to meet his Chinese and South Korean counterparts. He did not elaborate.

Fifty-nine percent of voters do not support moves by the Abe administration to change the current interpretation of the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise its right of collective self-defense, according to a weekend poll by The Asahi Shimbun. This compares with 27 percent of voters who do.

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