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Ruling coalition lawmakers stood in the Japanese Diet on Thursday morning to signal acceptance of the new law
Japan’s lawmakers have passed a controversial bill allowing authorities to target terror conspiracies.
PM Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc pushed it through the upper house early on Thursday, despite vocal opposition.
The government argues the law is needed to improve security ahead of the 2020 Olympics, and to comply with a UN agreement Japan has signed.
But critics say it weakens civil liberties and could be abused to monitor and target innocent citizens.
The bill, which criminalises the plotting and committing of 277 acts, is an amendment of Japan’s existing law against organised crime syndicates.
It bans the procurement of funds or supplies, and the surveying of a location, in preparation of a crime.
An entire group – defined as two or more people – can be charged if at least one member is found to have been plotting a crime.
The list of crimes includes serious offences such as terrorism, but critics have taken issue with how it also includes offences considered less serious such as copying music or mushroom picking in conservation areas.
BBC