The Japanese cabinet adopted a bill that would criminalize conspiracy and preparations to commit terrorism and other serious offenses through a revision of the law penalizing organized crimes. The bill, adopted at a Cabinet meeting, seeks to cover a total of 277 crimes after the government narrowed down the list of acts to be criminalized, by setting stricter criteria for crimes punishable under the bill.
As an example, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pointed to the AumShinrikyo doomsday cult, which committed a series of deadly crimes, including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subway system, which killed 13 people and left more than 6,000 injured.
Terriblesarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subwayin 1995
Similar legislation was scrapped three times in the past due to concerns that creating a crime of conspiracy may lead to punishing citizens’ groups and labor unions.
The anti-conspiracy legislation is part of the government’s efforts to develop legal systems that would allow Japan to become a signatory to the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
Among member countries of the United Nations, only 11 countries, including Japan, Iran and South Sudan haven’t signed the convention. To fill up the “hole” in international cooperation on crime investigations as early as possible, passing the bill is an urgent issue.
“To prepare for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics only three years away, we need to take every possible measure to prevent terrorism and other organized crimes,” Chief Cabinet Secretary YoshihideSuga told a press conference on Tuesday. “We will aim to have the [anti-conspiracy] bill enacted as soon as possible.”
Speaking in a separate press conference, Justice Minister KatsutoshiKaneda stressed that the list of crimes targeted by the bill has been narrowed down. “The content is something that dispels anxieties and concerns that have been expressed so far,” Kaneda said.
Past government proposals to penalize people for plotting crimes were criticized as attempts to infringe on freedom of thought.
To avoid such criticism, the latest bill calls for punishing preparations for executing crimes, including arrangements to procure funds and goods and preparatory inspections of related sites.
The U.N. treaty requires signatories to develop legal systems to criminalize the planning of serious crimes punishable by imprisonment of at least four years.
In drawing up the bill, the government initially planned to cover all 676 acts of conspiracy that fall under this category.
The Justice Ministry has presented a view that ordinary groups may be recognized as organized crime groups if their characteristics change drastically.
But no specific criteria have been indicated for judging when an ordinary group has transformed itself into a crime group.
In expert’s opinion of japantimes, there are 3 main threats to Japanese people, the extreme religious threat, Domestic terrorist threat and International terrorist threat, Japan must pay more attention to fight against extreme religiousorganizations.
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http://the-japan-news.comews/article/0003591573
http://the-japan-news.comews/article/0003591499
