New law enacted in Japan against hate speech deemed toothless by experts

Japan's parliament passed a law on Tuesday to prevent hate speech with the original bill clearing the upper house of Japan's bicameral parliament on May 13.

But the new law has already been harshly criticized for its inability to prevent or deter hate speech, as under Japan's Constitution, freedom of speech is guaranteed and, as such, hate speech cannot be legally prohibited or penalized.

Hope remains however, that the new law, despite currently lacking in the legal gravitas hoped for by many legal experts and civic groups who have been battling hate speech in Japan for decades, would henceforth provide a legal springboard for both local and the central governments to apply the law more harshly in some circumstances.

In doing so, particularly at a central government level, a sorely needed precedent could be set to better tackle instances of hate speech, which in many other developed nations are illegal and punishable in the same way instances of physical assault are, regardless of notions of freedom of expression or speech.

According to an interpretation of the newly enacted law it defines as discriminatory "any expression of intent to harm people who were born abroad and reside in Japan lawfully and their descendants, or to incite discrimination against them."

The law also defines "extreme offensive verbal abuse for such purposes as discriminatory," Kyodo News said.

Such remarks under the new law are now deemed to be unacceptable and both central and local governments will provide services to victims of hate speech to be able to consult over the instances. Centers to deal with such matters will then take it upon themselves to better educate and launch awareness activities to better inform the public and potential perpetrators about the topic.

"The law has shortcomings, such as a lack of specifics about what the state or municipal governments should do, but it would still be the basis for promoting the launch of consultation services and stipulating ordinances," Yasuko Morooka, a lawyer with knowledge about hate speech, was quoted by Kyodo as saying.

A survey of attitudes toward discriminatory language revealed recently that of 700 Japanese lawmakers polled, only 46 of them even had an interest in the topic.

(APD)