Investigation on Disturbing Election Campaign

The Metropolitan Police Department raided the office of the Party of Tsubasa with suspect of violating the Public Offices Election Act. The party is suspected as disturbing campaigns of other candidates by loud chanting in the by-election in Tokyo 15th district of the House of Representatives last month. Although the party leader argued that they had simply exercised their freedom of speech, the argument is regarded as a misinterpretation of democracy. 

The police investigated some offices of the party in Tokyo with the reports of other parties which campaign speeches on the street had been disturbed by chanting through loud speaker or persistently trailing campaign car. The head of Tsubasa, Atsuhiko Kurokawa, the party’s candidate for Tokyo 15th, Ryosuke Nemoto, and another party officer are suspected as having violated the law which prohibits disturbing freedom of election.

 

According to the news reports, those three members obstructed public speech of Hirotada Ototake, an independent candidate with support of the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, or other candidates. It is confirmed that they loudly chanted from a close place to another candidate’s speech and make the audience unable to hear what the candidate were speaking. The police had warned those three about their honking from a car toward Ototake on the first day of the election campaign.

 

The Public Offices Election Act defines a disturbance of candidate’s public speech as a crime. There is an example of court decision that the crime is made by an action which effectively forces the candidate unable to make speech. It includes an action making the audience unable to hear the speech. The police seems to have realized that the activities of the Party of Tsubasa would be categorized in the crime of disturbing freedom of election campaign.

 

The Party of Tsubasa uploaded the video of their activities on the web, which earned certain number of views. They have not explained about what the purpose of their action is, and their policy presenting to the public is still unclear. “We will continue our activities, even if we are arrested. What we are doing is protecting freedom of speech,” said Kurokawa to the reporters.

 

Nine candidates ran for the by-election in Tokyo 15th, and a candidate with Constitutional Democratic Party won. Ototake finished the race at the fifth place. Some other candidates, including one with Japan Innovation Party, were also disturbed by the Party of Tsubasa. Other parties argues that the police had to stop Tsubasa during the campaign. However, it is not easy for the police to suspend a candidate’s campaign in the middle of election.

 

The lawmakers began to consider reviewing the law to regulate excessive disturbance in election campaign. But there is an example that the police displaced two people in the audience who chanted toward then prime minister Shinzo Abe in Sapporo 2019. The point should be how to distinguish fair heckler from malicious disturbance against someone’s campaign.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more