A senior Japanese diplomat and a U.N. rights expert traded barbs Monday at the U.N. Human Rights Council over a report released in May that criticized Tokyo's record on freedom of opinion and expression. David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom ...
A Lower House panel has voiced concern about the classification procedures of state secrets, warning that the nation's controversial secrecy law was being overused. In a report released on Wednesday, the intelligence surveillance panel stopped short of issuing official recommendations, saying its comments were simply ...
The watchdog’s report for 2015 says Japan has displayed an “intolerance of public criticism” with the introduction of a contentious new secrecy law.
A U.N. expert in charge of freedom of expression, whose visit was postponed at the Foreign Ministry's request, will visit Japan in April, the ministry said Wednesday. David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and ...
The U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression says Tokyo has canceled his upcoming visit, raising suspicions it is reluctant to endure critical scrutiny of its new secrecy law.
Hundreds of protester took to the streets in Tokyo as the measure, which critics say is open to abuse and imperils the public’s right to know, came into force.
Along with the bread and butter issues of the economy, voters are urged to take a serious look at the Abe administration's actions in the areas of defense and freedom of information over the past two years.
The ruling coalition's bill to set up a Diet committee to oversee government designations of "state secrets" needs drastic revision as it does not give the committee effective power to rectify classifications.
The new state secrets law is so broad that it's self-defeating and must be amended before it comes into force in December or it will have a chilling effect on free speech, according to U.S. national security and civil liberties expert Morton Halperin. Halperin said ...
The Japanese government has so far failed to give meaningful reassurances about how the reactionary and potentially dangerous state secrets law, rammed through the Japanese Diet in December, will operate.
An expert council for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be able to serve as a minor check against the arbitrary application of the new state secrets law, but the the defects of the law will remain.
Crystal-ball gazing is a notoriously inexact science, so before getting to that, let's lessen the potential exposure to ridicule by starting with a roundup of the last 12 months' key trends and events in Asia. 1) Tacloban — In November, huge Typhoon Haiyan flattened this ...
