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| Prime Minister Shinzo Abe |
The ruling coalition rammed the "anti-conspiracy" bill into law at a plenary session of the House of Councillors on June 15 despite stiff resistance from opposition parties.
The bill to revise the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes and Control of Crime Proceeds to criminalize preparations to carry out terrorist attacks and other crimes cleared the upper house at 7:46 a.m. with the support of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), its junior coalition partner Komeito and the opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party). Of the total 235 votes cast, 165 are in favor of the bill and 70 were against.
In an extremely rare move, the governing bloc issued a so-called "interim report" to the chamber on the night of June 14 to propose to bypass a vote on the bill at the chamber's Judicial Affairs Committee before putting it to a vote at a plenary session. In accordance with the proposal the chamber skipped a vote at the panel.
After the enactment, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government is determined to implement the legislation "in an appropriate manner to protect the lives and assets of citizens."
Touching on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the prime minister said, "We'd like to sign the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as early as possible to cooperate with the international community in preventing terror."
Read the full story at The Mainichi