絶叫デモはテロ?

Japan’s illiberal secrecy law

The threat of merely screaming
(Economist 2013/12/03)



★絶叫デモはテロと変わらない?　　AFP

★日本のデモは世界で一番秩序正しく行われ、警察の警備も他のどの国よりも厳重になっている。

今話題の「特定秘密保護法案」に反対するデモに対して「単なる絶叫戦術はテロ行為とその本質においてあまり変わらないように思われる("the tactic of merely screaming is in essence little different from acts of terrorism")」と石破茂自民党幹事長が自身のブログで述べていて、問題となっています。


エコノミストもさっそくこの問題を取り上げています。

石破幹事長のブログ発言は激しい批判を浴びて、表現内容を少しトーンダウンしましたが、かなりのダメージを受けたようです。

エコノミストは記事の中で次のように述べています。

Not only the ruling party's illiberal attitude made plain, but Mr Ishiba's comment only adds to worry about broad scope of the secrecy bill, which is expected to clear the upper house of parliament this week.

「与党自民党が党内だけの狭い考えにとらわれているだけでなく、今週参議院で成立の見通しの特定秘密法が扱う範囲の広さに対しての懸念も強まっている。」

野党の山本太郎衆議院議員のツイッターでのコメントも取り上げています。

"Thanks Mr Ishiba! Now we know how protesters against the powers-that-be will be treated once the secrecy bill passess."

「有難う、石破さん!　特定秘密保護法が決まれば、権力に対してのデモがどう言う扱いを受けるか理解出来ました。」

※the powers-that-be は「当局、時の権力者」の意

そしてそのあとに次のように書かれています。


Mr Ishiba’s reaction also raises anew the question of whether the bill might in future be used to stop anti-nuclear protests against restarting Japan’s nuclear power plants—which the government regards as possible targets for terrorist attacks.

「石破幹事長の反応からは、この法案が将来、政府がテロの攻撃の対象とみなしている日本の原発再稼働反対の抗議デモを行わせないようにするのに適用されるのではないかという疑問が新たに生まれてくる。」


世論の動きを無視してまで強硬に法案を通そうとする政府自民党ですが、そのためか安倍政権の支持率が下がってきて50%を切ったようです。

石破幹事長のテロ行為発言はこれからも尾を引くことでしょう。


★「特定秘密保護法」は１２月6日、参院本会議で自民、公明の与党などの賛成多数で成立しました。



PUBLIC demonstrations in Japan are some of the free world’s most orderly and also some of the most heavily policed. On November 26th, as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) pushed a controversial secrecy bill through the lower house of the Diet, your correspondent walked by a line of protesters sitting calmly outside the building, holding signs against the proposed law. The nearest thing to violence was one middle-aged woman with a megaphone pumping a fist and chanting.

That makes it stranger still that in a blog post on November 29th, three days after the lower house passed the bill, Shigeru Ishiba, the LDP’s secretary-general and the party’s number-two, compared the people protesting against the new law to terrorists. Some of the demonstrations have been sizeable—one, on November 21st in central Tokyo, numbered in the thousands, but many of the protesters that day were elderly and as their march reached the Diet buildings they lowered their banners in obedience to orders from the police. Nonetheless, “the tactic of merely screaming is in essence little different from acts of terrorism”, wrote Mr Ishiba on his blog. Amid a storm of criticism he quickly softened his stance. Noisy demonstrations alone, he clarified in a speech on December 1st, do not constitute terrorism.


Yet the damage is done. Not only is the ruling party’s illiberal attitude made plain, but Mr Ishiba’s comment only adds to worries about broad scope of the secrecy bill, which is expected to clear the upper house of parliament this week. It will hand out ten-year prison sentences to those who give away state secrets in four areas: in defence, diplomacy, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. It is vaguely worded and there is little safeguard against the likelihood of too much information being secreted away from the public. “Thanks Mr Ishiba! Now we know how protesters against the powers-that-be will be treated once the secrecy bill passes,” tweeted Taro Yamamoto, an opposition politician. Mr Ishiba’s reaction also raises anew the question of whether the bill might in future be used to stop anti-nuclear protests against restarting Japan’s nuclear power plants—which the government regards as possible targets for terrorist attacks.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, along with the Japan Restoration Party and five other parties all attacked Mr Ishiba’s comment, as “outrageous verbal abuse”. The definition of terrorism contained in the bill that passed, they noted, is too vague. Shinzo Abe, the prime minister and the main architect of the bill, which he says will strengthen national security, is already feeling the weight of the law’s unpopularity. The approval rate for his cabinet has fallen below 50% for the first time since he took office in December 2012, according to a poll published by the Asahi Shimbun, a newspaper, on December 1st. It now stands at 49%, down from 53% in the previous survey. Mr Ishiba’s comments will not help