Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Is Japan REALLY a democracy?  Peace campaigners locked up for free speech

The media in nominally democratic countries like Japan and the U.S. like to quote poliicians who talk about the lack of democracy in countries such as China or Burma.  But the onus is on those who decry the lack of “democracy” in other countries to demonstrate their own commitment to it.  Locking peace activists away for more than two months, as Japan has done in the case of several citizens who distributed anti-war literature to a Self-Defense Forces housing project, which has now been approved by the morally bankrupt Tokyo High Court, is certainly evidence that the Japanese government is on the same page as that of the more open repressive governments it pretends to disdain.  It should be noted that those who distribute flyers for Pizza Hut and pornography have not enjoyed the same fate as the peace activists.  Clearly Koizumi and company do not want SDF members to find out that the Bush-Blair war it is helping to prop up is illegal and immoral and therefore decide to refuse to take part.

Links
CITIZENS GROUP
http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~tentmura/

THIS AND SIMILAR CASES
http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2412/freedom.html
http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2430/free%20speech.html
http://www.backspace.com/notes/2004/12