Issue:
September 2024 | Letter from Hokkaido
Supreme Court ruling on Shinzo Abe hecklers raises worrying questions about Japan’s commitment to freedom of expression
On August 19, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals of the Hokkaido prefectural government and a male plaintiff in a case that could have grave implications for freedom of expression at political rallies in Japan.
The court’s ruling ends a five-year campaign that caused widespread alarm among constitutional experts, NGOs, lawyers, and media over how Hokkaido police handled a July 15, 2019 incident in Sapporo during an appearance by the then prime minister, Shinzo Abe. The incident prompted warnings about police violations of the constitutional right to free expression.
While Abe addressed a rally in a public area near Sapporo station, onlookers began shouting for him to resign and demanded that he not raise taxes – the sort of heckling the any politician in a democracy should expect when appearing in public. At no time did the hecklers direct personal threats against Abe.
But Hokkaido police, citing “security” reasons, grabbed at least two of the hecklers, Masae Osugi, a 36-year-old man, and Kio Momoi, a 29-year-old woman, and physically removed them. The police also appeared to intimidate other hecklers who had shown up with placards critical of Abe.
The incident raised questions about Japan’s commitment to freedom of expression and assembly, particularly as, in this case, the aim was to voice criticism of someone who wields political power.
After Osugi and Momoi sued the police, the Sapporo District Court in March 2022 found Hokkaido prefectural police had violated the pair’s right to freedom of expression and ordered the prefecture to award the plaintiffs ¥8.8 million in damages. The prefecture appealed.
Just four months later, Abe was assassinated while speaking at a political rally near Nara in July 2022. The following April, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida narrowly avoided an attempt to kill him during a campaign stop in Wakayama Prefecture.
That meant the Sapporo High Court handed down its ruling in June 2023 amid heightened concern about the safety of politicians, including a large number who were out and about on the campaign trail ahead of a possible Lower House election.
Rather than uphold the lower court verdict, the High Court issued a split decision. It agreed with the district court that Momoi’s forced removal had been illegal. But it said police were within their rights to eject Osugi because he had ignored police warnings about his heckling, and officers had had sufficient reason to believe that not removing him would make him a possible target for violence from Abe supporters.
Osugi and Hokkaido prefecture were both unhappy with the high court decision and appealed to the Supreme Court, whose ruling has been heavily criticized in Hokkaido.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is tantamount to an endorsement of the Sapporo High Court’s ruling, reaching contradictory conclusions on the issue of freedom of speech. Confirmation of the High Court’s decision threatens to stifle citizens from expressing their opinions,” said an August 21 editorial in the Hokkaido Shimbun.
“What is most dangerous is that the decision to dismiss (Osugi’s) appeal could be used by a government administration to justify its exclusion of dissent. Given the past history of suppression of speech to maintain public order, can we be sure the police will not arbitrarily determine the imminence of danger?” the paper asked.
But the Hokkaido Shimbun, which is read by almost 30% of the prefecture’s households, far more than the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun (5% and 2.3%, respectively), did not break the story. According to the 2022 book Yaji to Minshushugi (Heckling and Democracy) by two Hokkaido Broadcasting Corporation journalists, Yuji Yamazaki and Tasuku Nagasawa, that accolade belongs to the Asahi Shimbun.
Hokkaido is a small market for the Asahi. The paper, along with the Yomiuri and the Mainichi, is not nearly as influential as the Hokkaido Shimbun and local broadcast media. But that also may have meant that the bonds of sontaku with the Hokkaido police press club were not as strong, or at least judged not as critical by the Asahi editors, as those of the Hokkaido media’s editors and producers.
Despite being slow out of the gate, local media did eventually cover the incident. The scuffle between Osugi, Momoi, and the police was captured on camera and uploaded to social media. The fact that the victims filed a lawsuit against the police drew local support from those who agreed the police had gone too far, which helped generate more coverage. A December 2023 documentary about the incident won numerous film and journalism awards in Japan.
As I write, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are gearing up for leadership elections in late September. While neither involves extensive public campaign speeches by the candidates, speculation is swirling that whoever becomes the new LDP president – and by default the new prime minister – is likely to call a snap election, possibly in late November or early December after the passage of the supplementary budget.
The Abe assassination and attack on Kishida, plus the arrest in May of leaders of the small Tsuba no Kai political party for disrupting their opponents’ campaigns in the April parliamentary by-elections, means police and the candidates’ staff will be on high alert when the country finally goes to the polls.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Sapporo hecklers begs difficult questions: what is being protected by a police decision to eject a heckler, and is that decision a constitutionally valid response to a clear danger to the candidate, or an illegal move to silence criticism and remove a perceived “nuisance”?
The Sapporo heckling case has ended. But it has repercussions that are likely to be felt in Japanese courts for many years to come.
Information on the award-winning documentary “Yaji to Minshushugi” can be found at https://yajimin.jp/
Eric Johnston is the Senior National Correspondent for the Japan Times. Views expressed within are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Japan Times.
