Japan's Prime Minister Wants New Secrecy Laws; What's a Secret? Anything He Wants To Be Secret

I would like to use the word shocking, but hardly anything any government does anymore is shocking.

The best I can hope for is Japanese citizens are disgusted enough to boot their fascist, economically illiterate prime minister before its too late.

Unfortunately, I highly doubt that happens.

Please consider Japan’s Abe Seeks to Pass Secrecy Bill That Sapped Support

Japan’s government will move today to pass a bill granting it sweeping powers to declare state secrets, a measure pushed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost ties with the U.S. even as it sapped his public support at home.

The bill, which is backed by the U.S. and forms part of Abe’s broader push to strengthen Japan’s defense policy in the face of China’s military assertiveness, would stiffen penalties for bureaucrats who leak secrets and journalists who publish them. It would give government officials, rather than the courts, the power to define what constitutes a state secret under categories from defense to diplomacy, terrorism and safety threats.

The measure, criticized by much of Japanese media, has prompted rare public protests. Demonstrators gathered outside parliament last night and organizers called for more protests today, while the ending of debate on the law sparked an outcry from opposition lawmakers.

The approval rating of Abe’s government fell 4 percentage points from a month ago to 49 percent, the first time it dropped below 50 percent since Abe’s election almost a year ago, according to a recent poll by the Asahi newspaper.

Half of those surveyed opposed the bill that punishes leaks of government information with jail terms of as much as 10 years. The newspaper polled 1,001 people by phone Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 and didn’t give a margin of error.

Public criticism heightened after Shigeru Ishiba, secretary general of the LDP, wrote a blog post Nov. 29 likening those who demonstrate against the bill to terrorists. 

U.S. officials have supported Abe’s push for collective self-defense and said they welcome the secrecy bill.

US War-Mongers Support Abe

Also disgusting (and also not surprising) is support for secrecy laws from US warmongers and NSA defenders.

Please notice that the secretary general of the LDP, wrote a blog post Nov. 29 likening those who demonstrate against the bill to terrorists.

Does that remind you of anything?

Goering at the Nuremberg Trials

Please recall what Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring (in English his name is also spelled as Hermann Goering) Nazi founder of the Gestapo, Head of the Luftwaffe, said at the Nuremberg Trials.

Here is a clip of the interview in Goering's cell in prison, after the war.

Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

And now we are told by charismatic politicians that we are under attack. We must give up our constitutional rights to prevent further attacks. [And we need more secrecy too.]

Adding an additional note about secrecy, the above is a portion of my November 1, post What's the Greatest Threat to Our Constitutional Rights?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com