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When three antiwar activists were detained by the Tokyo police for 75 days in 2004, the Nobel Prize-winning international rights group, Amnesty International, formally declared them to be “prisoners of conscience,” thus tarring Japan’s reputation with a brush that is ordinarily reserved for the world’s most oppressive regimes...............

Japan’s open government activists hailed the adoption of the national Public Records and Archives Management Act (“Public Records Act”) as a milestone in government accountability. When that law took effect on April 1, 2011, government agencies were legally required to make and preserve records ...........

Japan is facing a constitutional crisis. The ruling coalition seeks to pass legislation that would overturn the nation’s longstanding prohibition of “collective self-defense.” Expert opinion is nearly unanimous that these proposals violate Article 9, the peace provision of Japan’s Constitution. ..................

Trials are generally open to the public. If not only can witnesses not be seen, but the testimony cannot be heard, it cannot be called "observing a trial," and the principle of open trials seems to be violated. This is a "trial over observing a trial," which could be said to be an issue that goes beyond the "right to take notes" that was recognized in the court memo trial.

Japanʼs national Diet adopted a comprehensive state secrecy law on December 6, 2013.1 Expanded state secrecy power is emblematic of the broad political agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his allies.