Keep secret state secrets secret or go to jail

[Coligny]

The only way to do something about this law is voting the bums out of office.

Hopefully these protests make people aware of what they can do next time at the ballot box.

Time for the younger generation to become more politically engaged.

Dood... They are not even motivated enough to get some p00n, settling for anime and dakimakuras, you expect them to get involved in politics ?

Are you smoking catnip again ?

[Coligny]

Japan's secrecy bill condemned by Nobel academics

Although not mentioned in this article, I saw an interview with Masukawa on TV, either last night or the night before, where he was saying that he believed Japan has embarked on a "path to war" (戦争への道). Them's strong words. Strong, scary words. Things probably won't actually go that way, but it sure doesn't look as though the J-gov't is gearing up for peace.

Abe is finally showing showing his true colours.

I think they are more than enough stupid, arrogant and out of touch to go to war and expect victoly...

Now, i wouldn't want to be a Chinese high ranking politician or military...

They want /need and laid claims to way too much, pissing off a lot of people. And I'm pretty sure their economy is not flourishing because of their military industries. Leaving them in need to have export customers to buy their crap... War->embargo->lot of people with no jobs->beheaded governement in no time or military putsh.
They should have pulled a gaza strip on the Senkakus. Civilian settlements/private company to exploit the ressources with coast guard protection... I/E skipping the war/military occupation and going straight to business like if they owned the place.

[Taro Toporific]

Japan passes a democracy-muzzling Patriot Act
---The Obama-supported State Secret Bill criminalizes investigative journalism and equates terrorism with ‘imposing one’s opinions.’---
GlobalPost / December 6, 2013
<big snip>
...Here are four disturbing ways the bill could be a democracy muzzler.
It defines terrorism as imposing one’s opinions on others.
On November 29, ruling party lawmaker Shigeru Ishiba lashed out at demonstrations near the Diet building in Tokyo, writing in his blog that protesting the bill is “seems not so different” from an act of terrorism.
Ishiba quickly retracted his statement. But his vitriol outraged critics, who raised fears about the obfuscated and strangely targeted definition of “terrorism” in the bill. According to Article 12, terrorism is partially defined as an activity that forces “political and other principles or opinions on the state or other people.”
In other words, throw up a rowdy anti-government protest, and the judiciary can find a reason to lock you away.
It criminalizes investigative journalism
Journalists can be prosecuted for “improperly accessing” classified documents or “conspiring” to leak them.
Even asking an official to take a look at classified documents could constitute “conspiracy,” leading to up to five years in prison. “Instigating” the release of government secrets, meanwhile, carries up to 10 years in the dock.
The government denies this, proclaiming that free speech will continue to be protected under the Constitution. It has also incorporated hazy safeguards, including a line in the bill that agencies must “take into consideration” human rights and freedom of the press.
But what exactly does that mean? Protestors aren’t reassured.
Basically, anything can be a secret
The act gives heads of government agencies near-total power over classifying state secrets under four categories: diplomacy, defense, counterintelligence and counterterrorism.
The problem is, administrators can make the opaque decisions to classify a document even if their work hardly relates to national security. That effectively allows them to hide any embarrassing piece of evidence, and then pursue the journalists and bloggers who make it public.
The act may conflict with the freedom of information law.
It’s unclear how the act will impact the 1999 freedom of information law, which grants citizens the right to request disclosures and lays out the government’s responsibilities in doing so.
In all likelihood, officials will probably use the state secrets bill to refuse requests, acting in line with the freedom of information law’s broad exemptions for releases that could harm national security or public order, writes Joel Rheuben, a Japanese law specialist.
Is democracy under threat in Japan? Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has agreed to set up an agency that would monitor the information that’s made secret. But that’s only a promise, not a provision actually included in the bill — the sort of vagueness that critics are going after in the first place.

[matsuki]

I got a "talking to" by a 42yo drunk truck driver yesterday, regarding this shit. In short, his opinion was "there is nothing to worry about for regular people, this only affects journalist and the military. There are many things we don't need to know!"



I truly hope his views aren't as common as he thinks...

[Coligny]

I got a "talking to" by a 42yo drunk truck driver yesterday, regarding this shit. In short, his opinion was "there is nothing to worry about for regular people, this only affects journalist and the military. There are many things we don't need to know!"



I truly hope his views aren't as common as he thinks...

I don't think you had an experience with one of the brightest person of the country. Judging by the incredible number of doctors that are mind boggingly dumb as fuck I have ZERO hope for the IQ of the average truck driver...

[Midwinter]

Considering I had almost the exact same conversation with a Diagnostician I would say either the Frenchman's right, or the propaganda machines have been working over time. NHK fees well spent!

[Russell]

Judging by the incredible number of doctors that are mind boggingly dumb as fuck I have ZERO hope for the IQ of the average truck driver...

But sometimes life brings interesting surprises.

Like the time I met this bum at a road station selling cheap paraphernalia from his car, and we came to have a good discussion about quantum physics.

But yeah, in general not much hope for the average truck driver...

[Coligny]

Wasn't he selling eye drip OTC horse tranquilizers ? I think I know him too...

[matsuki]

I got a "talking to" by a 42yo drunk truck driver yesterday, regarding this shit. In short, his opinion was "there is nothing to worry about for regular people, this only affects journalist and the military. There are many things we don't need to know!"



I truly hope his views aren't as common as he thinks...

I don't think you had an experience with one of the brightest person of the country. Judging by the incredible number of doctors that are mind boggingly dumb as fuck I have ZERO hope for the IQ of the average truck driver...

Me neither but by how many trucks are on the road here, they probably vastly outnumber us

[Coligny]

So do ants and cockroaches...

[matsuki]

So do ants and cockroaches...

Yeah, but they don't get to vote

[Coligny]

That would be too much of an improvment... And Sarkozy would never have been elected...

[Russell]

So do ants and cockroaches...

Yeah, but they don't get to vote

In Coligny's kitchen they get to vote what food they eat tonight...

[Coligny]

I have 1 jumpy spider in every room the super cute kind that interact with you when you look/wave them.

But roaches...

Haven't seen one here yet... Either it's because of the felines or just the building inability to sustain lifeforms... Roaches need heat, and the concrete turn stone cold quite fast...

[Coligny]

Dat' kind of spidey...

image.jpg

The others makes me shit my pants on the spot... I got me a phobia like no other.

[gaijinpunch]

Time for the younger generation to become more politically engaged.

This is the problem w/ an aging population.

[Taro Toporific]

麻生太郎:　「ははは・・・特定秘密保護法を強制採択するのはホント簡単だったよね？」
Taro Aso: "HAHAHA ... did you see how easy it was to force that secrecy bill in?"

安倍首相:「 まったく、そうだね。僕の憲法違反の選挙みたいにさ！！次は何をしようか？？」
Shinzo Abe: "Totally ... As easy as my unconstitutional election. What should we try for now ??? "

secrecy-act.jpg

via Evacuate Fukushima 福島の子供を守れ

[Buraku]

Considering I had almost the exact same conversation with a Diagnostician I would say either the Frenchman's right, or the propaganda machines have been working over time. NHK fees well spent!

http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/up ... 288%29.jpg

[TennoChinko]

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Time for the younger generation to become more politically engaged.

I can't state this unequivocally, but my experience with the young in this cuntry has been largely to learn that they are far to the right of people in the 50/60 and above bracket, so I'm not too sure whether that's the way to go.

But the entire political spectrum has lurched far to the right since my youth. Japan is hardly alone. It differs slightly by being a hyper-nationalist state where the tendency in other industrialized nations outside of East Asia has been to plunge into theocracy, such as have become the norm in the politically immature Untied States and Straya.

[Russell]

Yep, very true.

I always think back to the 70's with a smile.

People from the other side of the iron curtain have a different opinion, as some of them told me recently...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Yep, very true.

I always think back to the 70's with a smile.

People from the other side of the iron curtain have a different opinion, as some of them told me recently...

With you all the way, Russell!

Personally, I think the loss of freedom is tied in. The death of political liberalism (as in freedom, not progressive political belief as it has come to mean) began with the politicization of the Religious Right in the Untied States in the late 1970s to early '80s and has spread outward (literally in this case as the Bible Belt also spearheads the Obesity Plague). The rise of equally batshit crazy Islam probably helped this. For those behind the Iron (and Bamboo) Curtain, though, religion was strongly equated with liberation from the evils of communism, so it offered hope rather than repression and suppression. Add into the mixture the worship of consumerism and corpocracy (coprocracy?) and we're in a fucked world...at least the highly anesthetized sheeple are happy with their lot.

The 70s are a grossly underrated decade!

[Yokohammer]

Religion and politics are FUBAR worldwide.

And the root cause? Human greed and power lust.

Which, I guess, means that there is no cure.

[matsuki]

Time for the younger generation to become more politically engaged.

I can't state this unequivocally, but my experience with the young in this cuntry has been largely to learn that they are far to the right of people in the 50/60 and above bracket, so I'm not too sure whether that's the way to go.

But the entire political spectrum has lurched far to the right since my youth. Japan is hardly alone. It differs slightly by being a hyper-nationalist state where the tendency in other industrialized nations outside of East Asia has been to plunge into theocracy, such as have become the norm in the politically immature Untied States and Straya.

Unfortunately I have to agree with SDH....met waaaay too many young people that are far right leaning when it comes to nationalism. Take the cuntry out of the equation, they're awesome people....bring up Japan this and Japan that and all reason goes out the window. Definitely don't like where this is going. How long will it be before Vice is doing undercover videos on Japan's propaganda, history ignorance, and nationalism?

(Though to be fair, I'm pleasantly surprised with how accepting all the country bumpkin temple okyakusan are of this FG entering the famiry. Nothing but smiles, curiosity, and good stuff.)

[wagyl]

I'm pleasantly surprised with how accepting all the country bumpkin temple okyakusan are of this FG entering the famiry. Nothing but smiles, curiosity, and good stuff.

It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that people, everywhere, who relate to you and who you relate to as an individual, are the nicest people you will ever meet. And people, everywhere, who are viewed by you or who view you as a member of a pack, are the biggest shits you will ever come across. And that includes your own kind.

[matsuki]

I'm pleasantly surprised with how accepting all the country bumpkin temple okyakusan are of this FG entering the famiry. Nothing but smiles, curiosity, and good stuff.

It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that people, everywhere, who relate to you and who you relate to as an individual, are the nicest people you will ever meet. And people, everywhere, who are viewed by you or who view you as a member of a pack, are the biggest shits you will ever come across. And that includes your own kind.

For sure!

...and so far noone has called me Russian this event

[wagyl]

That, Mr Mail Order Husband, comes with the territory, down that-a-ways. Go to the port and see all the signs in Cyrillic script offering to trade in used cars for the roll on roll off ships to Vladivostok.

[matsuki]

I guess I should learn some good Russian phrases....

[Samurai_Jerk]

The Devil made me do it

In Japan, a draconian secrecy law that will severely limit public debate on national security issues is about to go into effect.

Not only is Japan blatantly disregarding internationally accepted standards for state secrecy laws, but it is wrongly blaming the United States for requiring the law as a condition of sharing sensitive information and intelligence.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Looks like it took effect today.

Strict new Japan secrets law to take effect amid protests

Waving banners and beating drums, hundreds of Japanese took to the streets of Tokyo to protest a strict new state-secrets law taking effect on Wednesday that critics charge will help conceal government misdeeds and limit press freedom.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the law, which was passed a year ago amid protests, is essential to convince allies led by the United States to share intelligence with Japan.

Critics counter that whistleblowing on government misdeeds will be chilled. Reporters Without Borders has called the law "an unprecedented threat to freedom of information".

"This law will restrict the peoples' right to know," said Tomoki Hiyama, one of about 800 people braving frigid winds to gather in the shadow of Japan's parliament on Tuesday.

"It's full of ambiguity and will take us back to the 'public peace and order' controls of World War Two."