作成者別アーカイブ: wp7e

-> Japanese appeal

The deployment of a Self-Defense-Forces Fleet and a patrol plane in the Middle East is reported to be decided shortly by the Japanese Cabinet Meeting. This plan was made public on 18 October 2019 by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave instruction to the National Security Council to investigate this plan and Japan will not join the coalition of the willing, Naval Security Initiative, encircling Iran proposed by the United States in June 2019. In its place Premier Abe decided to authorize the Middle East Deployment of the Japanese Self Defense Forces for “Survey and Research” by the sole decision of the Minister of Defense without consultation with the Diet and the Cabinet.

It was said that this deployment would not cover the Holmes Strait where the U.S-Iran tension is focused, and hence there was no danger of being involved in military conflicts.　The Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga declared that there was no security problem for the Japanese Fleet and Japan pays due respect to Iran which is a friendly nation. But the close cooperation with the United States in the Middle East is firmly confirmed.

The present US-Iran conflict began in late May 2019 with the U.S. total ban of Iranian petrol. In June, a Japanese oil tanker was attacked by an unknown party, and in September Saudi Arabian petrol extraction institution was attacked also by an unidentified party. Thus, the tension in the Middle East was intensified and in November the above-mentioned Naval Security Coalition of Willing began its activities only by Seven countries.

The necessity to deploy a Self-Defense Forces Feet and a Patrol Aircraft for “Survey and Research” was not explained to the citizens of Japan and was decided by the cabinet with only the agreement by the LDP and New Komeito composing the government. The Government explained that the area of deployment and its objective will be adapted to the circumstances, and restriction of its use of weapons can be loosened. Under this lack of precision, this is the beginning of a de-facto deployment which will endlessly expand.

Such an oversea deployment of the Self Defense Forces by Japan is not an activity that this country, which should not have military forces except a minimal Self-Defense Force by the Japanese Constitution, should initiate. Japan should rather lead a worldwide effort to transform the present military international tension in the Middle East, decreasing all trends of insecurity in this region, and contribute diplomatically through humanitarian cooperation to peace and security.

PDF Appeal→136e.pdf

On 24th November 2019, Pope Francis delivered two messages in the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park of Nagasaki and in the Peace Memorial Park of Hiroshima, where he remembered the tragedy of all the people who lost their precious life or continued to live in pain and sorrow and insisted on the need never to forget their tragic experience, and never to repeat it again.
The Pope declared that «The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral. The possesion of nuclear weapons is also immoral.» «I ask political leaders not to forget that these weapons cannot protect us from current threats to national and international security. We need to ponder the catastrophic impact of their deployment, especially from a humanitarian and environmental standpoint.» He further declared that «Our world is marked by a perverse dichotomy that tries to defend and ensure stability and peace through a false sense of security sustained by a mentality of fear and mistrust, one that ends up poisoning relationships between peoples and obstructing any form of dialogue».
These remarks made by one of the leading religious leaders of today addressed to all the people of the world deeply impressed them. Especially so many people living in Japan who cannot forget the tragic consequence caused by nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki received these words with great sympathy. These words are also precious in Japan by supporting the message of Article Nine of the Constitution of Japan.
The two messages from Pope Francis are also confirming the Treaty for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, and condemning the wrong logic of Nuclear Deterrence of the political leaders who reject this Treaty including the Japanese Government Coalition whose present position is condemned with powerful arguments.
We, the Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace, strongly support the forceful messages of Pope Francis and want to have it shared by all peoples of the World. We hope that the opinion leaders of all religious, academic and cultural fields will raise their voice so that Pope Francis Messages will become the opening of a worldwide great wave for Peace and Reconciliation.

PDF Appeal→135e.pdf

We, the Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace, express our hope for a successful Meeting between Donald Trump, President of the United States of America and Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the Workers’ Party of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). We express, on this occasion, our appreciation towards the efforts to stabilize the Korean Peninsula of Moon Jae-in, President of the Republic of Korea, who paved a way to this Meeting.
The Committee of Seven has wished the building of a peaceful and stable Korea in spite of the escalation of mutual pressures between the two Parties, USA and DPRK. The US pressure on the DPRK was told to be a means to bring the DPRK to the negotiation table, and when such signs became visible, the Trump Administration decided ｔｏ follow prior hidden negotiations and engage in an official bi-lateral talk with the DPRK.
In spite of this positive development, Premier Shinzo Abe continues to insist on the necessity of strengthening international pressure on the DPRK, and Taro Kono, Foreign Minister, declared in his public speech delivered in 31 March that the DPRK “was preparing another nuclear test”, and could not answer the US remark he received, that the nuclear site activities of the DPRK had decreased, and was halted on the 5th of March. We ask the Government of Japan to join the international public opinion to support peace and stability in the DPRK and US relations.
The Committee of Seven supports the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We believe that to become a reality, this will have to be a part of the continued and irreversible efforts of the nuclear States, including the United States of America, to decrease their nuclear capacities following the Article 6 in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, accompanied by the renunciation of Japan’s reliance on the extended nuclear deterrence of the United States of America. Unless these conditions are fulfilled, it is difficult to hope that the situation in the Korean Peninsula can improve within the global situation of peace and stability. This is why, we already made public our objection about the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review of the United States. There are hawks, in the USA, in the DPRK and in Japan, and the obstacles they will pose against any attempt to build peace and stability will have to be overcome. To develop, in spite of all the obstacles, in the Korean Peninsula and in the whole world, processes to abolition of nuclear weapons, will reduce the mutual mistrust among conflicting States and increase the conditions for mutual trust among them. This will, thus, reduce and dissolve the present perilous tensions among nuclear States, locally and globally.
Bearing in mind the above points, the Committee of Seven expresses its heartfelt wishes that Premier Abe, not objecting to the positive direction of the negotiation of President Trump with the DPRK, will encourage him to seek a stable peace, on the occasion of the forthcoming Japan-US Talks. Japan itself should contribute actively to the promotion of peace and stability in East Asia as well as in the whole world. This will undoubtedly build the diplomatic power of Japan and enable it to solve other national issues, thanks to the positive climates it initiates.

(This is the English version of the Appeal, WP7 129J, which was issued in Japanese on April 15, 2018 and distributed widely.)

PDF Appeal→129e.pdf

The Trump Administration of the United States has made public on 2nd February its Nuclear Posture Review. Its contents reject the Nuclear Posture Review 2010 by the Obama Administration. It simply takes us back in history to the Cold War period, with its posture inacceptable today.
Among other problems, it declares that the United States will develop low-yield nuclear warhead and will posture nuclear capability including to hedge against conventional attack. This will only accelerate the world-wide nuclear arms-race and will induce possible nuclear attacks by adversaries. Such position is inconsistent with the US position which demands other nations to renounce to develop nuclear armament.
This new policy is a direct negation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted at the United Nations Headquarters last year. It also violates, as a member, the commitment to pursue negotiation in good faith to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early stage and to nuclear disarmament provided in the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The effect of radioactivity by the use of nuclear weapons will spread all-over the world even if they are low-yield and any nuclear conflict will make it impossible to build a stable peace. What we need today is just to prohibit the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons of any kind, under any possible circumstances.
The statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono of Japan, who expressed his “high appreciation” towards the United States Nuclear Posture Review 2018 is contrary to the will of the Japanese people who have been united around the nuclear victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demanding the total abolition of nuclear weapons since the nuclear tragedies of the two cities. It is a denial to the annual messages of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself to the Peace Memorial Ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, and to his own speech in front of the Cenotaph at the occasion of the Hiroshima visit of President Barack Obama.
We, the Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace, declare our dissent to the Trump and Abe Administrations, and demand the withdrawal of the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review 2018, and of the supportive statement of Kono, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

PDF Appeal→128e.pdf

Since Premier Abe declared the dissolution of the House of Representative at the Opening of the Extraordinary Session of the Diet, Japan experiences unprecedented turbulent days toward the election on the coming October 22.
Premier Abe has recently misinformed the public by covering up the daily reports of the Self Defense Forces participating in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) in South Sudan which contained information embarrassing for the Government assuring the armed conflicts which would have required the recalling of the Japanese Troops. He, also refused to provide information to the Diet, representing the citizens, who demanded explanation on his personal involvement in the Government choice to support the establishment of two educational institutions, Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Gakuen, which were suspected to be an unfair exercise of his power to benefit his personal friends. These cases have exposed him as a politician who lacks sincerity.
We, the Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace, cannot keep silent in face of the repeated imposition on the public opinion of de facto state of affairs, contrary to the present Constitution. which were unduly reducing the human rights shared by the citizen of Japan through the heavy-handed adoption in the Diet of the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, the Laws regarding National Security, and the Law against Premeditation.
Premier Abe’s decision to abrogate the Constitution Preamble and Article 9, Paragraphs 1 and 2, which does not allow to develop present joint activities of the Self Defense Forces with the Armed Forces of the United States as a part of the Collective Security, is un-Constitutional. His wish to propose a Referendum on a revision of the Constitution legalizing the present role of the Self Defense Forces goes against the seventy years accumulation of Democratic Will of the Japanese people. This ardent wish is unacceptable given the fact that the present Constitution has entirely no reason to be abrogated. We will oppose this plan mobilizing the whole nation of Japan to stop this useless abuse of power by the Abe Administration.
In the forthcoming election, the real division of the pro-Government and opposition lies between those who support or oppose the use of Collective Security, the acceptability of present laws regarding National Security, the revision of the Constitution. The emergence of a third political force, the Kibo Party, does not create a triangular opposition among three parties, since this new party shares the position of the Government about the above three issues. The difference, thus, exists between a political bloc, which supports democracy and want to promote its historical development, and a group having opposite tendency shared by the LDP and the Kibo Party.
We will aim building a Japan where human rights of all individuals are respected, a Japan which does not rely on military forces, and a Japan where the balance among the legislative, the judicial, and the executive power is re-established. We will continue all efforts to progress, step by step, in a World where all peoples recognize each-others’ life-style and historical background.

PDF Appeal→127e.pdf

Since Premier Abe declared the dissolution of the House of Representative at the Opening of the Extraordinary Session of the Diet, Japan experiences unprecedented turbulent days toward the election on the coming October 22.

Premier Abe has recently misinformed the public by covering up the daily reports of the Self Defense Forces participating in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) in South Sudan which contained information embarrassing for the Government assuring the armed conflicts which would have required the recalling of the Japanese Troops. He, also refused to provide information to the Diet, representing the citizens, who demanded explanation on his personal involvement in the Government choice to support the establishment of two educational institutions, Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Gakuen, which were suspected to be an unfair exercise of his power to benefit his personal friends. These cases have exposed him as a politician who lacks sincerity.

We, the Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace, cannot keep silent in face of the repeated imposition on the public opinion of de facto state of affairs, contrary to the present Constitution. which were unduly reducing the human rights shared by the citizen of Japan through the heavy-handed adoption in the Diet of the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, the Laws regarding National Security, and the Law against Premeditation.

Premier Abe’s decision to abrogate the Constitution Preamble and Article 9, Paragraphs 1 and 2, which does not allow to develop present joint activities of the Self Defense Forces with the Armed Forces of the United States as a part of the Collective Security, is un-Constitutional. His wish to propose a Referendum on a revision of the Constitution legalizing the present role of the Self Defense Forces goes against the seventy years accumulation of Democratic Will of the Japanese people. This ardent wish is unacceptable given the fact that the present Constitution has entirely no reason to be abrogated. We will oppose this plan mobilizing the whole nation of Japan to stop this useless abuse of power by the Abe Administration.

In the forthcoming election, the real division of the pro-Government and opposition lies between those who support or oppose the use of Collective Security, the acceptability of present laws regarding National Security, the revision of the Constitution. The emergence of a third political force, the Kibo Party, does not create a triangular opposition among three parties, since this new party shares the position of the Government about the above three issues. The difference, thus, exists between a political bloc, which supports democracy and want to promote its historical development, and a group having opposite tendency shared by the LDP and the Kibo Party.

We will aim building a Japan where human rights of all individuals are respected, a Japan which does not rely on military forces, and a Japan where the balance among the legislative, the judicial, and the executive power is re-established. We will continue all efforts to progress, step by step, in a World where all peoples recognize each-others’ life-style and historical background.

PDF Appeal→127e.pdf

In 2017, we, the citizens of Japan, celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Constitution of Japan. This Constitution, in its Clause 19, guarantees the Rights to the freedom of thought and conscience of all citizens. We express our serious concern about the fact that a bill on the criminalization of conspiracy preparing crimes, a legislation violating this freedom, is presently under discussion in the Diet. This legislation endangers the basic principle of the legal system of Japan which limits criminalization to only already committed criminal acts. This attempt to change decisively the very base of the legal system of Japan has been repeatedly attempted by the Government since 2003, and has been rejected already three times by the Diet, after many revisions of the proposed text and continued deliberation crossing Diet sessions. The same legislation criminalizing conspiracy preparing criminal acts is again submitted to the Diet for the fourth time as a law criminalizing the preparation of terrorism and other criminal acts.

The Government explained the reason for this new legislation to criminalize “Conspiracy Preparing Criminal acts” as that it is a precondition to the ratification of the “United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime” and this new legislation is indispensable in order to implement the legal measures to criminalize any activities implying the participation to a criminal act by two or more persons belonging to organized criminal organizations set out in the Clause 5 of this Convention.

The Abe Administration claims that unless the criminalization of conspiracy preparing Terrorism and other criminal acts is adopted by the Diet, Japan cannot ratify the above-mentioned United Nations Convention and hence cannot hold in 2020 the international Olympic and Paralympic Games. This statement is either based on misinterpretation of the international realities, or is a intentional distortion of the realities.

First, the “United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime” states in its Clause 34 that Each State Party shall take the necessary measures, including legislative and administrative measures, in accordance with fundamental principles of its domestic law, to ensure the implementation of its obligations under this Convention.
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was ratified in Japan without any new legislations to implement. This is an example which contradicts the explanation of the Abe Administration.

Secondly, if the ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime does not require any new legislation by the signatory parties, it is wrong to maintain the statement that the legislation criminalizing “the Preparation of Terrorism and other criminal Acts” must be adopted in order to ratify this United Nations Convention.

Thirdly, the objective of this Transnational Convention is not terrorism, and the proposed legislation also does neither have terrorism as its original objective. The Government has not presented to the Diet any justification to maintain that there exists an urgent need to create a law criminalizing the “Preparation of Terrorism and other criminal acts” in view of terrorist activities uncontrollable by the existing legal system.

Fourthly, the legal text which caused a public opposition does refer to 277 criminalized objects out of which 60% have entirely no relations to terrorism. The term “terrorism” was hastily added to the title and the explanation about why this law is submitted to the Diet legislation lacks any reference to terrorism.

From the above remarks, it follows logically, that the statement of the Government that without the legislation of “Crime of Preparation of Terrorism and other Criminal the Olympic Games cannot be held in Japan is entirely false. This way to try to accelerate the adoption of this law by deceiving the citizens cannot but alert us about the true intents behind this law.

First, to use the term “Counter Terrorism” to cover a variety of referents which cannot be limited to terrorism and make them the objects of an “important crime subject to more than four years’ penal servitude or incarceration” is logically manifesting an intent to use this crime to cover a variety of activities as undefined objects of this law.

Secondly, as it is assumed that even citizens living peacefully may become the object of investigation when they suddenly become members of criminal organizations, ordinary organizations of citizens may become the object of constant surveillance to determine whether sudden transformation does or does not take place.

Thirdly, any conspiracy is accompanied by preparatory acts. However, there is no concrete definition of what constitutes a preparatory act. Government replies to questions in the Diet declare that such acts do not have to be directly connected with the existence of a danger of criminal act. This cannot but mean that the definition of preparatory activities depends entirely on the judgement of the investigating authority. This, logically, makes the concept of “preparatory act” an entirely groundless legal argument.

Fourthly, the Government answers to questions in the Diet indicate that the investigating authorities are free to conduct their discretional investigations even before any activities preparing a crime has occurred, if the authorities judge that there exists a likelihood that a crime will be committed.

The logical consequences of the above trends are that all citizens will become the targets of a constant ever-broadening legal surveillance of their everyday life, and the object of legalized surveillance lacking any objective justification. So far as punishable criminality covers not only actual acts but also conspiracy and joint planning, we will be forced to accept any demand by the authorities to be submitted to questioning, in their discretionary investigating authorities so decide.

Since terrorists and criminal organizations cannot be distinguished by their appearance from peaceful citizens like all of us, all citizens become objects of surveillance to find conspiring criminals. Consequently, it is impossible to stop the expanding range of investigations using wiretapping and GPS.

The true reason the Government wants to have the Diet accept this legislation is clearly not to cope with terrorism but rather to develop a broad network of surveillance enabling the Government authorities to cover all aspects of the citizens’ livelihood. We strongly oppose this legislation which violates all the rights of the citizens of Japan about the freedom of thought and conscience, guaranteed by the Constitution, under the pretext of preventing the preparation for terrorism and other criminal acts.

PDF Appeal→124e.pdf

The overwhelming majority of the people of Okinawa have manifested, time and again, its opposition to the Plan of the Governments of the United States and of Japan to build a new Military Base of the U.S. Marine Corps by reclaiming the Bay of Henoko of Nago-City in Okinawa. Noｗ the situation faces a serious confrontation.

This building of Henoko Military Base was the major issue of the Election of the Mayor of Nago City of January 2014, of the Election of the Governor of the Okinawa Prefecture of November 2014, and of the Election of the House of Representatives of the National Diet of December 2014. In all these elections, disputeｓ fought around the Henoko issue was won by the candidates of “All Okinawa” alliance opposing the building of the Henoko Base by an overwhelming majority.

On the April 17, 2015, the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with the Governor of Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga. This meeting took place after a long stubborn refusal of Premier Abe to meet with the newly elected Governor Onaga over four months. At the start of the meeting Premier Abe said that the meeting was an occasion for a frank dialogue with the Governor. Yet he did not give any explanation about the concrete reason for maintaining that the Henoko Military Base was the only alternative in moving the Futenma Military Base which had been agreed to close down between the Japanese and the US Governments due to potential danger of serious accident in the midst of high population . He just stated repeatedly that “Henoko was the only solution” in response to Governor Onaga, who made a detailed exposition about the reason why he and the majority in the prefecture citizens could not accept this Plan.

The Government of Japan merely wants to apply the Plan to move the Futenma Military Base to Henoko proposed by bureaucrats of Japan and the United States in 1997, totally ignoring the present situation in which the people of Okinawa are experiencing a severe state of insecurity, without listening to the voices of the people of Okinawa opposed to this Plan.

The Abe Government legalized the unconstitutional concept of Collective Security, by a compromise lacking precision between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito composing the Coalition Government, totally ignoring critical opinions of the opposition Parties in the Diet. The Government repeated undemocratic actions in order to create an international fait accompli in support of the so-called Proactive Peace Policy of Premier Abe. These actions of the Government regarding the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa will make it impossible friendly relations between Japan and its neighbors including the United States itself.

The present situation in Henoko is not only a concern of the citizens of the Okinawa Prefecture. Petitions to the Central Government from Local Assemblies other than Okinawa such as the Village Assembly of the Hakuba Mura of Nagano Prefecture and the City Assembly of the Iwakura City of Aichi Prefecture criticized the Central Government ignoring the opposition to its plan on Henoko, demanding its respect to local autonomy, adopted in unanimity in the first case and by majorities in the second. The Local Government is not a branch office of the Central Government and the local autonomy should be respected by the Central Government according to the Law of Local Autonomy of Japan. It is the basic negation of democracy, we believe, that the Government neglects totally the determination of the Governor based on the will of the people.

The Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace made public two Appeals, in October 25, 2011, and in January 7, 2014, expressing its opposition to the creation of a U.S. Military Base in Henoko, and demanding respect of the historical past and future prospect of Okinawa by the Central Government.

The Local Defense Bureau in Okinawa has dropped 20 to 45 tons of concrete blocks into the Henoko Bay in connection with the construction of the runway on the sea authorized in August 2014 by the Okinawa Prefecture Government. On March 25, 2015 Governor Onaga ordered the stop of this construction work within 7 days for investigation of suspected violation of the condition of the approval, because of the dropping of concrete blocks outside of the permitted area and of demolishing the coral. On March 30, 2015, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, sent to the Okinawa Prefecture and the Local Defense Bureau an order of suspension of the instruction of Governor Onaga. This order was heavy-handed and indifferent that the dropping area was over the borderline of the previous permission and that the natural environment was demolished.

At present, the citizens of Okinawa Prefecture develop a non-violent campaign against the uncompromising maritime construction of the new Military Base in Henoko. They maintain a sit-in in front of the Camp Schwab, and organize a fleet of kayaks in opposition to the boring activities in the Henoko Bay.

We, the Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace, express its deep admiration for the non-violence of these activities. On the other side, the U.S. Military Forces, The Committee protests to the US Military Force, Japanese Police and Coast Guard who use violent measures against the resistant citizens, which cause casualties and arrests among them, since this is a clear violation of freedom of assembly and expression provided in the Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan.

The closing of Futenma Military Base is also urgent measure already discussed about 19 years ago in 1995 between Japan and the United States. The agreement between the then Premier Ryutaro Hashimoto and U.S. Ambassador Walter F. Mondale declared the return of the whole Futenma Base within 5 to 7 years. The present Government of Japan recognizes the insecurity caused by this base located in heavily populated area which was the cause of the agreement. The possibility of accidents should be seriously considered, without depending on the unfounded optimism assuming that such incidents would not occur. This is why the Futenma Base must be immediately closed. The reduction and closing of Military Bases is in itself useful for the reduction of international conflicts as history tells us.

In history Ryukyu (present Okinawa) was an independent Kingdom between the 15th and 19th centuries. It signed Treaty of Amity with the United States (July 11, 1854), with France (November 24, 1855), with the Netherland (July 6, 1859). It was invaded by the Satsuma Clan of south Kyushu in 1609, and was annexed to Japan by the so-called “Ryukyu Disposition” of the Meiji Government using military pressure.

We should not ignore the abnormal discrimination of the concentration of 74% of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa which covers only 0.6% of the Land of Japan. We must stop the destruction of the ecology of the beautiful Bay of Henoko which is the habitat of dugongs, sea turtles and coral.

We, the Committee of Seven to Appeal for World Peace, strongly protest the heavy-handed measures of the Central Government of Japan ignoring the right to live in peace of the citizens of Okinawa and call all the citizens of the Mainland of Japan to strengthen their solidarity with the citizens of Okinawa Prefecture in their opposition to the creation of U.S. Military Base in Henoko.

PDF Appeal→116e.pdf