Anti-Conspiracy Bill

The Anti-Conspiracy Bill (共謀罪, きょうぼうざい, kyōbōzai), or more correctly the 'Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes and Control of Crime Proceeds' was submitted to the Japanese National Diet on 21 March 2017 and passed on 15 June 2017.

Letter from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy

In a letter dated 18 May 2017, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joseph Cannataci wrote a letter to the Japanese Prime-Minister, Shinzō Abe, expressing concerns about the bill. The United Nations Special Rapporteur is an individual, independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to examine, monitor, advise, and publicly report on human rights problem investigate, monitor and publicize the human rights situation in specific countries. Joseph Cannataci wrote that the bill,

Would permit the application of laws for crimes which appear to be totally unrelated with the scope of organized crime and terrorism, such as ... theft of forestry products in reserved forests ... exporting without permission and destroying important cultural properties.

and that,

Serious concern is expressed that the proposed bill, in its current form and in combination with other legislation, may affect the exercise of the right to privacy as well as other fundamental public freedoms given its potential broad application. In particular I am concerned by the risks of arbitrary application of this legislation given the vague definition of what would constitute the ‘planning’ and ‘preparatory actions’ and given the inclusion of an overbroad range of crimes in the Appendix which are apparently unrelated to terrorism and organized crime.

— Joseph Cannataci, "Mandate of the Special Rapporteur of the right to privacy" (PDF). United Nations Human Rights Officer of the High Commissioner. Retrieved 19 June 2017. 

At a press conference on May 22, the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga responded aggressively to the letter, saying, "The letter was released unilaterally without the Japanese government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs having had the opportunity to directly explain the legislation (to Cannataci). The content was inappropriate, and we lodged a strong protest" with Cannataci.^[1] Cannataci responded in a second letter that "The 'strong protest' received from the Japanese government was just angry words but no substance" "It did not address even one of my many concerns about privacy or other defects.", "There is absolutely no justification for the Japanese government to behave in this way and push through seriously defective legislation in such a rush."^[1]

Edward Snowden said that "This is a bill that is not well explained, no-one sees a clear basis for why this bill is necessary in the first place given that the types of crimes that we're talking about in the context of terrorism are already against the law. Yes, this is the beginning of a new wave of mass surveillance in Japan. This is a normalization of a surveillance culture that has not previously existed in Japan in public."^[2]

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