The government is aiming to submit an anti-terrorism bill this Diet session, a more targeted version of "anti-conspiracy bills" that have been rejected three times in the past, but Feb. 2 saw another day of direct opposition from the Democratic Party and others during Diet deliberations, as concerns remain about investigators extending the powers that would be granted under the bill.
Proponents of the bill, which would revise the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes and Control of Crime Proceeds, argue it will allow Japan to join the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. At deliberations in the House of Representatives budget committee on Feb. 2, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "If we don't join the convention, we will be unable to join the international, terrorism-prevention community." He painted the new bill as different from past ones, saying, "We have made the crimes defined in this bill into something different than the conspiracy aspects spelled out in the bills until now."
Both the past conspiracy bills and the current anti-terrorism bill share the same objectives: allowing Japan to join the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. A big reason for the government to push for the bill currently is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 3 1/2 years. In recent years, not only has the extremist group Islamic State named Japan as a terrorism target, there have been a number of incidents and terrorist attacks overseas in which Japanese nationals have died. A government insider says, "With Japan gathering more international attention due to the Tokyo Olympics, there is no guarantee a terrorist attack will not happen."
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