The government was to have submitted a human-rights protection bill during the most recent session of the Diet. Various reasons are cited for the bill's failure to reach the Diet floor, including government leaders' obsession with other hot-button issues such as postal-service reform. Still, legislation to protect victims against discrimination, cruel treatment and other human-rights violations remain a vital issue in Japan.
The bill faced strong criticism partly because it contained a controversial clause suggesting the need to control mass media activities. Although the "media clause" was to be frozen even if the bill became law, the fear persists that the clause could be "defrosted" in the future and used to apply pressure on reporters and editors, thus infringing on freedom of the press.
The planned bill also provided for establishing a special commission to protect human rights as an extra-ministerial body under the Justice Ministry. Members would be appointed by the prime minister with Diet approval. This raised an important question: Since human-rights violations have often been reported in prisons and detention centers for immigration law violators, which are operated under the authority of the ministry, could such a commission function objectively?