Tuesday, December 10, 2013

In Theory, Yes

From the comments section to "Japan Passes Draconian Secrecy Bill Into Law: Journalists, Whistleblowers are now 'terrorists'" over at Jake Adelstein's Japan Subculture Research Center:
Now, if someone says Abe is an idiot, they can be arrested and jailed for revealing state secrets.

(Link)
The Special Secrets Protection Act does not come into effect for a while yet. So if you want to say anything resembling the above, feel free (and cherish that feeling) to say it now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fortunately, that Abe is an idiot is a secret to no one.

MTC said...

Anonymously -

But what if, let's say, National Public Safety Commission chairman Furuya Keiji thinks that prime ministerial idiocy is a secret? Can he not, under the current legislation, class the state of idiocy (aho jotai) as a special secret, since it is not provably common knowledge?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps -- and in the inevitable appeal to the Supreme Court, they would simply uphold the state of idiocy (アホ状態) instead of agreeing that the PM was indeed idiotic (アホ).