Recent legislation and other government moves are enough to cause anxiety that Japan may be inching toward an Orwellian society. The state secrets law, which will severely limit citizens' access to government information and impose heavy punishments on bureaucrats and other people who leak or obtain designated government secrets, will take effect by yearend.
The Justice Ministry has proposed greatly expanding the scope of investigative authorities' interception of electronic communications in criminal investigations.
The government is also eager to enact a law to introduce the crime of conspiracy under which people would be punished for joining others in plotting a crime even if the crime has not been carried out and even if no concrete preparations have been made to commit the act.