Shinzo Abe, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, basking in resounding support within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is expected to win a landslide victory in the LDP presidential race next Wednesday. The victory in the ruling party race is tantamount to winning the prime ministership.

Abe, however, was in the center of a raging storm last year when Asahi Shimbun revealed in several articles that then-deputy chief cabinet secretary and Shoichi Nakagawa, another LDP member and now agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister, pressured NHK, Japan’s public television network, to censor a documentary program about a people’s tribunal set up to judge the use of sex slaves by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Most of the victims were Koreans, Chinese, Filipino and Indonesians.

Following the report, an NHK producer also conceded in tears that they were made to remove key footage, including survivors’ heart-wrenching testimony, from the program that was aired in January 2001.

Rumiko Nishino, co-chairperson of VAWW -NET Japan (Violence Against Women in War), a Tokyo-based women’s group, said, “NHK’s top officials prescreened a program on the NHK educational channel with a very low rating. Prescreening itself is an anomaly. Then, they ordered their staff members twice to change the content. So it was a program full of patches.”

VAWW-NET Japan was one of the citizens groups that organized the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery, which was held in December 2000. It was supported by NGOs around the world, Nishino said. The group filed a defamation lawsuit against NHK after the documentary on the tribunal was broadcast.

NHK officials, Abe and Nakagawa repeatedly denied the allegation, however. Following the report and a series of embezzlement scandals within NHK, Katsuji Ebisawa, its president, resigned to “take responsibility” and save face for the network, one of the world’s largest.

While Abe was given much time to deny the allegation on TV and discredit the tribunal, those who organized the nonbinding trial were not invited. Citizens groups like VAWW-Net Japan are held in low esteem in a country where people tend to give credit to a large organization.

“So, even Mr. Abe distorted the fact of the tribunal and gave incorrect information about it on TV, journalists who didn’t know the event failed to point that out,” Nishino said.

For instance, Abe said the tribunal had no defense team. The tribunal asked then-Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to have a defense counsel attend the court. Since Mori never responded, amici curia (an impartial adviser to a court of law in a particular case) explained the Japanese government’s position and point of views, she said.

Critics said the media failed to pursue the truth concerning the NHK documentary program. They now devoted massive favorable coverage to Abe.

Abe’s father, Shintaro Abe, was a foreign minister and his grandfather was former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who was arrested as a suspected Class A war criminal, but later went free. Abe became popular by taking a strong stance against North Korea, especially over the issue of abduction of Japanese by North Korean spies.

“LDP members started making a fuss, complaining NHK was making a biased program and the network changed its content. That’s the only problem. But that’s the only thing that the media apparently agreed never to make the issue of,” said Kenichi Asano, a journalism professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

The media shifted the attention away from the LDP members’ pressure by focusing more on a nasty battle between Asahi and NHK. While major papers also criticized Asahi’s coverage, magazines made personal attacks on an Asahi reporter who wrote about the issue, some calling him an “ultraleft reporter.”

The issue took another turn in late July 2005, when influential monthly magazine Gendai published the transcription of the Asahi reporter’s tape of the conversations with Abe, Nakagawa and Takeshi Matsuo, then-executive director in charge of broadcasting at NHK. The article was embarrassing to them since it showed they repeatedly lied about the allegation of censorship, critics said. And it is considered to be clear evidence supporting the allegation, as Matsuo said in the tape that he had met with the two and later changed the content of the program.

The Gendai article infuriated the LDP, which decided not to talk to Asahi Shimbun anymore. While there was not much criticism about the party’s move, Asahi became isolated. In addition, when another Asahi reporter in Nagano made up a story in late August, public trust in the paper dwindled.

That ethical breach, however, was apparently made use of by Asahi leadership to end the dispute over the article on the issue of the NHK documentary, said Asano.

Asahi Shimbun ran articles on Oct. 1 concluding that the article regarding the NHK documentary program included “uncertain” information, and apologized for the tape’s leakage leaked outside the paper.

“You cannot write an investigative report if you are required absolute proof. You can do that without it,” said Asano of Doshisha University. “Asahi’s responsibility makes up 99 percent of the issue. However, absolutely no solidarity among news organizations also led the paper into a difficult situation.”

“Asahi Shimbun, which became popular as a major news organization, kneeled in total surrender to Mr. Abe, and when the LDP stopped Asahi from covering the party, the paper accepted it,” said Yasushi Kawasaki, a former NHK political reporter. “Other news organizations as well go along with Abe, who will most surely become prime minister. Journalism is as good as dead. I’m not joking.”

Nishino said the media play a central role in defending democracy. “However, the Japanese media caved in to authority,” she added.

Minoru Morita, a Tokyo-based political analyst, agreed, “Without doubt, it is the fact that the two pressured NHK. However, Asahi as well as other media caved in and no longer talked about it. Japan’s greatest crisis today is the nonexistence of journalism. Decent information is not disseminated through the media. Those who look like journalists but curry favor with authority are rampant.”

According to Morita, after World War II, the mass media deeply reflected on their responsibilities for being a propaganda machine of the Japanese Imperial Army, and thought they should become more independent like their Western counterparts.

“They kept the spirit about 10 to 15 years after the war. News organizations, however, hired more of those submissive to authority. And they are now in the management class, while younger employees lay their critical thinking to sleep or stifle it and also surrender to authority. It is a very serious situation,” he explained.

Hiroyuki Shinoda, the editor of monthly magazine Tsukuru, which covers the media industry, said the NHK issue is the epitome of self-censorship of major news organizations. When they find their news material “too controversial” to authority figures, they change the content by themselves.

“Since around the 1980s, the media have started to lose consciousness of playing a watchdog role of government and to have less confrontation with it,” he said. “The media have become too big (and powerful), and they have very little spirit that they investigate state power thoroughly in a body.”

Kawasaki asserted Japanese leaders like Mr. Koizumi and Mr. Abe are detached from the freedom of speech.

“One good example is that when one right-wing member set the house of LDP member Koichi Kato fire because of his firm and repeated opposition to Koizumi’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine, both of them did not condemn the attack on the spot,” he said. “It was a rational argument.”

The prime minister also eliminated LDP members opposed to his postal privation plans by not giving them party endorsement during the 2005 House of Representatives elections, he added.

Kawasaki was forced out of a career track at NHK after his coverage of the faction of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was pulled off the air due to pressure from the LDP. He recalled the network’s disgraced executive, Ebisawa, was a political reporter covering the LDP and became a politician as if he were a member of an LDP faction he covered.

Since Ebisawa became the president, he let more political intervention into NHK coverage than ever, while NHK’s political desk has exerted more influence over the news organization, critics said.

Moreover, Japan Internet News CEO Ken Takeuchi, who was an Asahi Newspaper editorial board member, argued kisha club systems also contribute to the major media’s self-censorship.

“When LDP leaders say, ‘We are not going to make the issue of one’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine this time,’ that creates the atmosphere in which reporters can no longer ask related questions,” explained Takeuchi, whose company launched Japan’s first serious alternative online newspaper, Jan Jan (Japan Alternative News for Justices and New Cultures) three years ago. “Once different kinds of media get in, there would be more different kinds of questions, and angles of their questions would be different.”

Under the system, there are “collusive relations” between the media and authority figures, stressed Takeuchi, who abolished a kisha club system when serving as mayor of Kamakura near Tokyo.

Since those who are at the kisha club systems depend much on authority figures for information, most of the coverage of the LDP presidential race is focused on its candidates, not on the public. The LDP also failed to invite the public to their debate, Takeuchi said.

“As an open political party, they have to involve the public in their debate,” he said. “However, since their debate is preoccupied with party logic, the scope of debate is inevitably limited.”

Since most of the public cannot vote for the intra-party race, critics asked why in the world the mass media excessively cover it to begin with. The largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan also holds a presidential race this month, however, the coverage of the DPJ race is “less than 10 percent of the LDP coverage,” Morita said.

NHK, Mainichi Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun all agreed that since the victory of the ruling party race is expected to win the prime ministership, it is natural that they should cover it. Yomiuri Shimbun declined to comment.

“Not only opposition parties, but the ruling coalition was not covered. All they got is just Mr. Abe,” Kawasaki emphasized. “He was all over.”

The public relations department at Yomiuri Shimbun decline to comment when asked about criticism that the media failed to raise the issue of censorship concerning the NHK program, though many experts, journalist and viewers believed NHK did change the content of the program due to political pressure.

The paper said in its editorial when Ebisawa quit last year, “… the subject of the program should be questioned in connection with the Broadcast Law, which obliges the broadcaster to be neutral and fair.”

The public relations department at Sankei Shimbun said in its statement, “The reason we could not help being critical of Asahi Shimbun is that it is a matter affecting the whole news media … The court was questioned concerning its fairness and neutrality as it mainly consists of female judges and prosecutors but lacks a defense team.”

Nishino of VAWW-Net Japan said the tribunal had amici curiae.

“Since NHK is a public broadcasting system, whether the content of the program is appropriate or not is an essential problem,” the Sankei statement referred to the documentary about wartime sex slavery.

According to the president’s office of major economic daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the paper does not respond to questions about such specific topics, unless they refer to one of its own articles.

While critics said Asahi Shimbun closed the curtain on the NHK problem, leaving the truth vague, the paper’s public relations department responded by saying it devoted two pages to its own views and findings of an independent group, and President Kotaro Akiyama also held a news conference. So they disagreed with the criticism.

The public relations department at NHK responded in its statement by saying, “There is no (evidence) that the content of the program was changed due to political pressure.”

Yuji Yoshitomi is a correspondent for Japan’s weekly tabloid magazines from Japan’s third largest city Osaka, and the author of “Osaka Bankrupts,” an expose of political corruption and fiscal waste in the municipality. Although his book was well-received and widely reported in the local media when it was published last year, however, it was largely ignored by the national media. Yoshitomi fears that Japan’s overwhelmingly Tokyo based media have little interest in regional politics: “In the eyes of the Tokyo- media – and it’s the same for TV, newspapers or weekly magazines – the only news from Osaka worth taking up is about the Hanshin Tigers baseball team or murder cases.”

As a writer for weekly magazines, he has experienced their ambivalent relationship with Japan’s more respectable media. The latter are often amongst the weeklies’ targets, but newspapers and TV journalists use the magazines as an outlet for stories they can’t publish themselves. “There are gaps where [newspapers and TV] can’t report,” says Yoshitomi. “It’s the weekly magazines who fill those.”

But he also warns that the weekly magazines are losing their freedom to cover the stories other media won’t touch. Weekly magazine editors face rocketing libel payments, political pressure, even physical violence and the threat of arrest. In 2004, infamous scandal magazine, “Uwasa no Shinso” (“The Truth Behind the Rumours”) folded after a series of libel cases and a violent assault on its editor. On July 4th this year, the publisher of scandal magazine, “Kami no Bakudan” (“Paper Bomb”), was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment for criminal defamation. Freelance journalists say that a proposed anti-conspiracy law could further intimidate editors and restrict reporting.

While Yoshitomi is frank about what he calls the weeklies’ sometimes “sloppy” reporting, he stresses that scandal magazines and tabloids have an important role to play in the media – especially when large media organizations are vulnerable to pressure from the powerful. “If you want to understand about Japan, it’s not enough just to read the newspapers and watch TV,” he says. “You need newspapers, TV and weekly magazines.”

Japan Media Review: As a weekly magazine writer what kind of stories do you cover?

Yuji Yoshitomi: Basically, as far as weekly magazine reporting on Osaka goes, it is mainly “incidents.” In the eyes of the Tokyo media – and it’s the same for TV, newspapers or weekly magazines – the only news from Osaka worth picking up is about the Hanshin Tigers baseball team or murder cases. They have no interest in politics.

For example, when I wrote my book “Osaka Bankrupts,” it was a big issue in Osaka last year. Newspapers and TV were reporting on the Osaka government every day. In Tokyo, it was reported only briefly –Tokyo people didn’t know about the fuss in Osaka.

Tokyo weekly magazines don’t carry stories about Osaka politics. If they did, I don’t think people would read them. Osaka people know all about Tokyo from Osaka newspapers and TV, but the opposite is not true; Tokyo newspapers and TV don’t report about Osaka.

JMR: Why aren’t there any Kansai-based weekly magazines?

YY: I wonder why? There used to be one, but it didn’t sell. It seems that Osaka news by itself doesn’t sell. Unless it is some big Osaka murder case or scandal, people are not interested. Even people living in Osaka, they want news from Tokyo first.

JMR: How distinct are the Osaka and Tokyo media?

YY: Twenty years ago the tone was quite different between Tokyo and Osaka [newspaper editions]. Now, virtually all the Osaka newspapers have the same stance as the Tokyo papers. If there is an incident in Osaka, the papers will use more space and report it widely, but the political stance is the same whether it is Tokyo or Osaka.

JMR: What about other media?

YY: What’s interesting is that TV is different. For example, although Asahi Television is based in Tokyo, a company in the same business group, Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, is based here [in Osaka]. It is part of the same Asahi group, but they don’t broadcast the same thing.

The programs made in Tokyo are broadcast here, but there are Osaka-made “information programs” [news and entertainment shows] too. They are pretty extreme – they can freely broadcast things that can’t be said in Tokyo.

JMR: What kind of things?

YY: In Japan the imperial family issue is pretty much a taboo topic. It’s a delicate issue and the Tokyo media are very careful to be respectful. The Osaka media, on the other hand, are friendly to the imperial family, but they will be frank, too.

It started with entertainment news. Most entertainment journalists are based in Tokyo. If they report anything too extreme, they will get pressure from the big production companies. But if they come to Osaka, they can say what they want in the Osaka media.

After that, political journalists and commentators in the Osaka media started freely saying things which they can’t say in the Tokyo media. At the moment, if you are looking for a clear difference between the Tokyo and Osaka media – it’s the TV stations, and the information programs.

JMR: Are there fewer taboo topics in the Osaka media?

YY: No, that’s not the case. There are several major taboo topics in Japan; organized crime gangs, North Korea, the Burakumin [Japan's social class of former outcastes] and Soka Gakkai [an influential and controversial Buddhist sect]. As far as these taboos are concerned, there isn’t much difference between Osaka and Tokyo. The Osaka media might say things slightly more clearly, but it doesn’t really apply to the major taboo topics.

Historically there have been more Burakumin communities in the Osaka area [than in Tokyo]. The Osaka media know that, so they are more nervous about reporting the issue than Tokyo. On the other hand, Tokyo is more nervous about reporting the imperial family issue.

JMR: What sort of role do the weekly magazines play in the Japanese media?

YY: The newspapers don’t report 100 percent of the situation in Japan. Take the issue of the imperial family. The imperial household journalists knew that the Crown Prince and Masako were planning to get married, but they didn’t report it because of pressure from the Imperial Household Agency. The story was first reported by foreign media. And the information had been passed on by the weekly magazines.

The things that newspapers and TV want to say, but can’t say, get said by the weekly magazines. The things the weekly magazines can’t say, they used to pass on to “Uwasa no Shinso” [a now-defunct scandal magazine]. But Uwasa no Shinso has folded; that’s a shame.

JMR: Why did Uwasa no Shinso fold? Was it because the media became freer and its role disappeared?

YY: It’s the opposite. The Japanese media isn’t getting freer at all. The reason Uwasa no Shinso folded was because the editor didn’t have freedom [to write].

JMR: Aren’t the Japanese media freer to write about taboo topics these days?

YY: It has got easier to write about those taboo topics, but it is much harder to write about political scandals. People who have power can use the authority of the police. These are the days when the editor of a publishing company like Rokusaisha can be arrested without anyone minding. It’s a time when it is extremely difficult to write about scandals concerning those in power – politicians and bureaucrats.

JMR: Why doesn’t a replacement for Uwasa no Shinso appear?

YY: For one thing, producing a magazine is expensive and very risky. Even if you produce it, you don’t know if it will sell or not. And even if it does sell, you can get taken to court. Libel payments are getting larger recently. Before they were less than 1 million yen or thereabouts. Now they are close to 10 million yen [about US$85,000].

The Japanese people need a magazine like Uwasa no Shinso, but there are too many risks now. No one will produce magazine like that.

JMR: What kind of relationship is there between the newspapers and weekly magazines?

YY: The relationship is bad. The reporters on the spot are friendly, but the companies don’t get on. That’s because the weekly magazines’ targets aren’t just people in authority, politicians, the presidents of big companies. They also target newspapers and TV – mainstream media.

JMR: Aren’t the weekly magazines themselves often criticized for inaccurate reporting?

YY: It’s not the TV and newspapers that say the weekly magazines write lies. It’s the politicians. Though it is true there’s a sloppy side to weekly magazine reporting. Say there is an incident in Osaka. The only weekly magazines who have Osaka correspondents are Friday and Flash. [The weekly magazine reporters] can’t cover enough ground and the reporting is sloppy.

Newspapers and TV have an extremely wide range of targets for reporting: sports, politics, the imperial family, incidents. But there are gaps where they can’t report. It’s the weekly magazines who fill those gaps. There are many examples where politicians have resigned because of weekly magazine scoops.

Each medium only tells part of the story. There is no medium that covers the whole picture. As a journalist, you need to read the left wing Asahi, the right wing Yomiuri, and after that the weekly magazines. If you want to understand about Japan, it’s not enough just to read the newspapers and watch TV. You need newspapers, weekly magazines and TV.

The people who don’t want articles to be written, who don’t want people to know about the bad things they have done… if they have this law, they can easily have us arrested as criminals at any time.”

The object of freelance journalist Katsuhisa Miyake’s concern is a conspiracy bill now being debated in the Japanese Diet. He believes that the law, which would make conspiracy to commit any of 619 different crimes an offence, could used to obstruct the work of investigative journalists in Japan.

Miyake has reason to be wary. In 2003 he was sued by Takefuji over articles he wrote on the consumer loan company for weekly magazines. He lost and was ordered to pay 110 million yen [935,000 dollars]. It was several years before Miyake could overturn the ruling on appeal. “It was preposterous. I couldn’t pay it. I would have gone bankrupt.”

He fears that the law could make it easier for large companies and politicians to intimidate investigative journalists through the threat of arrest. “Even the Diet representatives themselves who are debating the conspiracy bill don’t know what it is for,” he says, arguing that its main aim is simply to increase police power. “If the police or prosecutors decide to arrest someone, this law will make it extremely easy for them to do so.”

The bill was first introduced to the Japanese Diet in 2003 to ratify Japan’s signing of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. “It is Japan’s duty to ratify the treaty,” stresses Judicial Affairs Committee member and vocal supporter of the bill, Katsuei Hirasawa. He says that the law would be a powerful tool to fight against organized crime in Japan and abroad. Having spent over 25 years working in Japan’s Police Agency, he also believes that a conspiracy law is needed to strengthen police powers and protect the rights of victims. “[Opponents to the law] are saying you should crack down on crime after it has happened. It is too late then.”

Despite the backing of a large Diet majority from Prime Minister Koizumi‘s landslide victory in last September’s election, the bill has been twice rejected and revised. Now it has been postponed until the next Diet session. The delay and revisions were prompted by strenuous objections by lawyers, the Japanese press and opposition parties.

Lawyer and opponent of the bill Yuichi Kaido says that the concept of conspiracy is largely absent from Japanese law, restricted to only the most serious crimes. Unlike in the United States or the United Kingdom, where conspiracy laws have a long history, he says, Japanese law is closer to French or German law. Police can typically only make arrests after a crime has actually happened. “Japanese people can’t understand the concept of issuing punishment even though no crime has yet been committed,” he says.

The original draft of the bill made members of any “group” subject to arrest for conspiracy. Critics expressed concern that the law could be used against NGOs or unions. Although the bill has since been revised to apply specifically to groups with a criminal purpose, Kaido argues that the definition is still too vague. “It is the police who will decide whether or not a group is a criminal group,” he says. He is also concerned that once a member of an otherwise innocent organization was arrested, the group would be de facto classified as criminal.

Kaido notes that government officials have said little about how evidence of conspiracy will be collected. Wire-tapping, heavy-handed interrogation and tip-offs are likely tools for the police, he argues. Even conspiracy members who later change their minds will still be subject to arrest; only conspiracy members who go the police will be treated leniently.

The threat of arrest is a powerful tool for intimidation because once arrested, suspects have few rights, says Kaido. “For 23 days they can interrogate a suspect day and night. In a very serious case the interrogation can continue for 10 or 12 hours every day,” he says. Bail is rarely granted. “Almost everyone confesses to the Japanese police.” Until recently, interrogations were unrecorded, and even now prosecutors can decide when or when not to record. There are also persistent allegations of torture, says Kaido. “If you look at the totality of criminal cases, torture is very rare—but it is also rare for people to deny the charges. Among those cases, torture is not uncommon.”

Former National Police Agency official Hirasawa emphatically rejects the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ arguments. “[Their] opposition to the bill is absolutely groundless and mistaken. They haven’t studied the bill,” he says. “They are just doing their best to protect the human rights of offenders. They have no interest in the rights of victims.”

To the charge that the law could be used to intimidate NGOs, unions or journalists, he says only groups whose purpose was crime would be targeted. “Why would the law to apply to journalists? It would be inconceivable for journalists to be targeted by the law; they are not a criminal group. If their purpose was reporting, the law wouldn’t apply.”

He also argues that Japanese police have far less power than their foreign equivalents and have to be sure of a conviction before making arrests. “In Japan, 99.97 percent of people are found guilty in court after they are arrested,” he points out. “Take a look at America, Britain, Europe – it is 60 or 70 percent at most. You can easily see that foreign police are making more wrongful arrests.”

Opposition party, the Social Democratic Party of Japan is against the conspiracy bill. “There is no need to destroy Japan’s system of criminal law and create a conspiracy law,” says leader and former lawyer Mizuho Fukushima. She compares the anti-conspiracy bill to the science fiction film “Minority Report” in which Tom Cruise’s character is arrested for a crime he has yet to commit. “It won’t really be to fight against organized crime groups,” she says. “There is a high probability that it will be used against NGOs, unions, and infringe on various kinds of freedom of expression.”

She fears the law could be used to stifle opposition to right-wing projects, including reform of the peace constitution, a new education law to promote patriotism and expansion of the U.S. military bases in Japan. “The right to freedom of expression to protest against the [Iraq] war is being severely curtailed,” Fukushima says, pointing to the arrest of the “Tachikawa three,” peace activists who were arrested for distributing anti-war leaflets to the mail boxes of a Self Defense Forces housing unit. “This law could be a tool to further suppress anti-war freedom of speech,” she says.

Earlier in June, several hundred people gathered in Hibiya Park in Tokyo to demonstrate against the bill. The meeting, where Diet member Fukushima also spoke, was held a stone’s throw from the Ministry of Justice and the National Police Agency. The gathering included trade union representatives, peace activists and consumer groups.

Freelance journalist Hitomi Nishimura was at the meeting to represent “Opinion Makers Against the Conspiracy Law,” a group of journalists, writers, broadcasters and bloggers. The group has produced a DVD, a series of downloadable movies and an anti-conspiracy law blog that gets 1,500 hits a day.

“Journalists who report on those in power won’t be able to do their jobs,” says Nishimura. She suggests that without the support of large media organizations, the threat of arrest would be enough deter freelance journalists from investigating the powerful. If they are arrested, the loss of weeks of pay, whether or not charges are brought, could be disastrous. And the same applies to small magazine publishers. Last July the publisher of a scandal magazine, “Kami no Bakudan,” was arrested and charged with defamation. The magazine had published a series of articles on Aruze Corporation, a pachinko gambling machine maker. The publisher was released more than 6 months later. The magazine alleges ties between the company and the local police.

Another member of the group, freelancer Yu Terasawa says that he has particular reason to be worried about the law. “I write about illegal police activities,” he says. “If I tried to get incriminating internal documents through an intermediary, I could be arrested for conspiracy to theft.” Unlike even a defamation prosecution, the police could take action before an article was researched, never mind published. He points out that there is no independent police watch-dog in Japan, and he fears that the law would make it even easier for the police to impede investigation by freelance reporters.

Economics journalist Ryuji Shinohara notes a vast difference in the position of freelance journalists and those working for large media organizations. “Politicians are more afraid of freelancers who earn 3 million yen a year than big media journalists who earn 30 million,” he says. Japan’s press club system means that mainstream media journalists can’t rock the boat because they risk the very real threat of being denied access to sources. He argues that it is up to Japan’s freelancers to provide independent reporting – something that would be made even more difficult by the conspiracy law. “The main newspapers have their own influence with the police. It’s the small publishers and freelancers who will have problems.”

Ironically, even when “Opinion Makers Against the Conspiracy Law” attempted to attend Diet deliberations on the conspiracy bill they bumped up against all too familiar obstructions. On arriving at the Diet Judicial Affairs Committee, they were unable to get press seats, as those were reserved for the press club members.

Despite the bill’s postponement, given the strength of the ruling coalition majority, commentators expect it to pass sooner or later. If that happens, freelance journalists as well as NGOs and activists will have a nervous wait to see how the new law is applied. Many argue that they have little reason to trust the authorities. A recent editorial in the Asahi Shimbun echoed their concerns: “We cannot deny that distrust of police and the court system underlies the public’s anxieties regarding the conspiracy bill.