Opposition lawmakers on Thursday slammed successive Liberal Democratic Party-led governments for failing during their long decades in power to establish a law against racial discrimination, saying they had no choice but to draw one up themselves to address the recent rise in hate speech mainly targeting ethnic Koreans.
During the first question-and-answer session in the Upper House Legal Committee on the bill to outlaw racial discrimination, opposition lawmakers stressed the importance of enacting the legislation to crack down on racism.
The bill was jointly submitted to the Upper House in May by the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and independent Upper House member Keiko Itokazu