The Dispute Over Japan's Police Law

A T JAPAN'S GENERAL ELECTION in May 1958 Mr. Kishi's Liberal-Democratic Party retained its absolute majority unimpaired. Although it was not among the principal issues of the campaign, the Party in its election manifesto called for industrial peace based on enlightened management and a cessation of the periodical spring and autumn strike offensives of organized labour. It also committed itself to institute criminal proceedings, as in the past, against civil servants who indulged in dispute action, to enforce the school-teachers' efficiency rating system, and to reestablish the teaching of ethics in the schools as a separate, compulsory, subject. In the ensuing session of the Diet in June, although the Premier spoke of the necessity for dealing firmly with undemocratic activity, whether it came from the left or the right, the Government devoted itself principally to matters left over from the previous session. On September 29 the Diet was reconvened for a forty-day session. Simultaneously a legislative programme was announced containing some forty specific bills most of which were not controversial. A week later it was announced that discussions were in progress within the Liberal-Democratic Party with a view to immediately introducing a Police Duties Law Amendment Bill. On October 8 the Cabinet hastily approved the bill and announced that it would be introduced in the House of Representatives the following day. The Opposition (the Socialists) immediately denounced the bill as reestablishing the Police State, declared their determination to prevent its becoming law, and threatened to boycott all Diet proceedings if the Government attempted to force through the legislation. The Liberal-Democrats replied that they were prepared to pass the Bill even in the absence of the Opposition. The Opposition boycott began on October io and the following day, after two days of inconclusive discussion between the leaders of both parties, the Speaker (a Liberal-Democrat) committed the bill to the appropriate House committee (Local Administration Committee). This action was denounced by the Opposition as an attempt to stifle discussion and was criticised by the press as partisan. However, though unprecedented in the case of an important bill, the Speaker's action would appear to have been lawful

Boycott · Cabinet (room) · Democracy · Legislature · Manifesto · Political science · Politics · Engineering · Japanese History and Culture · Law

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