The Upper House Judicial Affairs Committee held a first public hearing Wednesday on controversial bills to allow law enforcement authorities to monitor communications during investigations of organized crime.

During the morning session, the panel heard from commentators Makoto Sataka and Reiko Suzuki as well as lawyer Hiroshi Murahashi.

Suzuki commented on issues concerning the use of stimulant drugs by junior high and high school students, and supported the bills as necessary measures to stop international underworld organizations from drug trafficking.

Sataka opposed the bills, saying allowing investigative authorities to wiretap would lead them to focus more on "public security" and not on crime itself.

Murahashi supported the bills, stressing the importance of introducing new measures against organized crime. "I rate the bills as a powerful means for that," he said.

In the afternoon session, Katsumi Oguchi, head attorney for Yasuo Ogata, a former senior official of the Japanese Communist Party who accused police of tapping his phone in 1986, criticized police authorities for not admitting to the charge.

Although Ogata, now an Upper House member, won his suit against the National Police Agency and the Kanagawa Prefectural Police in 1997, Oguchi said police did not cooperate at the court hearings.

Koichi Miyazawa, a professor of law at Chuo University, supported the bills, saying that a constitutional state should have strong measures to fight organized crime to protect its citizens.

Toshimaru Ogura, a professor at Toyama University, warned that the bills do not fully cover communication via the Internet, saying that monitoring e-mail would violate the privacy of the sender.

Under the bills, law enforcement authorities with court warrants would be allowed to tap phone lines to investigate organized crimes involving drugs, guns, premeditated murder and the mass smuggling of people into Japan.

Meanwhile, the Japan Housewives' Association has sent a message to all members of the Upper House Judicial Affairs Committee, demanding abolishment of the wiretapping bill.

According to the statement, the association said monitoring private communications would violate Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of communication.

Infringement of such a constitutional right would require a thorough discussion by the public and a national consensus.