Japan Imposes Sweeping Pre-Crime Surveillance Law Ahead Of 2020 Olympics

With the latest spate of terror attacks we are beginning to witness supposedly democratic countries take increasingly tyrannical positions in the name of security.

Yesterday, Germany made it clear that they were willing to eradicate basic civil liberties by forcing the surveillance of smartphone apps and communications as well as absurdly permitting children as young as 6-years-old to be fingerprinted.

England, of course having been the direct target of terrorism over the course of weeks, has taken so far the most draconian position of moving to completely curtail Internet freedom, despite legal experts voicing their concerns about eradicating free speech as well as the limited effectiveness of such measures.

Japan is the latest to join the move toward a new level of government control over every aspect of their citizens' lives in the Orwellian vision to protect freedom by removing it.

Bloomberg reports that,

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government passed controversial legislation that gives prosecutors the power to monitor and arrest people in the planning stages of crimes. (emphasis added)

On the surface, when applied to the planning of bona fide terrorist activities, it appears reasonable. 

However, the new measures will apply to 277 types of crimes which include some very pedestrian offenses hardly seeming worthy of pervasive government surveillance and new powers -- like copyright violations (???).

Opponents to the new legislation say it is the latest round of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's desire to overhaul Japan's constitution, a charge that stems back to at least 2013 when he granted a very American provision to the government to hide information under the label of "state secrets."

In 2015 Abe passed the so-called "defense and security" bills which removed previous restrictions that were imposed on the role of the Japanese military; it sparked massive protests across the country as citizens feared a return to Japan's imperial past.

And, again, people turned out en masse to protest Shinzo Abe's latest legislation:

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside parliament on Wednesday night to voice opposition to the bill. The general public is split on the need for the law, with about 40 percent in favor and the same proportion against it in a Kyodo News poll conducted last month. More than 77 percent said further explanation was needed.

Koichi Nakano, professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo, concisely summarized the sentiment of those protesting:

This fits Abe's agenda in the run-up to a prospective national referendum on constitutional revision, and Japan's possible involvement in future wars ... Both of these would require new means to control unruly citizens who object to government decisions.

The "new means to control unruly citizens who object to government decisions" is an agenda that is becoming clearer by the day as the very governments who have failed to protect their nations from terrorism despite increased funding to do so are now overtly undermining their own constitutions which were designed to guarantee liberty even when faced with grave threats to security.

Originally published at Activist Post - reposted with permission.