Political wrangling over whether to approve a new penalty against criminal conspiracy approached a climax Wednesday after opposition lawmakers submitted a no-confidence motion against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda as part of an eleventh-hour tactic to delay the vote.
The proposed revision to the current anti-organized crime law — arguably the biggest source of controversy in the ongoing Diet session — is aimed at enabling law enforcement authorities to crack down on suspected terrorists who conspire to commit crimes.
The government deems the revision vital to beefing up counterterrorism capabilities ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and has said the law was a prerequisite for participation in a U.N.-designated convention against transnational organized crime. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has even declared that Japan can't host the Olympics without the law.