Sir, – Regarding "Plan to increase police powers touches raw nerve in Japan" (World News, May 26th), Japan's new Bill is necessary to underpin the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which has already been agreed to by 187 state parties, including Ireland.
Concluding UNTOC is a pressing issue for the whole international community, as seen in the repeated calls in the relevant resolutions, statements, etc.
For Japan, it is even more so since we are going to host major events, including the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Although Japan signed the convention, domestic laws do not fulfil the obligations of the treaty, impeding Japan from concluding it.
After recent terrorist attacks in the UK, Sweden and Belgium, last month in the G7 leaders called for more cooperation to implement international agreements, including UNTOC. Updating domestic laws and concluding the treaty will allow Japan to fill an international legal loophole and contribute to preventing organised crime, including terrorism. Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, welcomed Japan’s efforts, especially the passage of legislation by the lower house of the Japanese parliament, in his statement on May 29th, 2017.
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The proposed provision criminalising an act of planning and preparation to commit terrorism and other serious crimes will apply only to “organised criminal groups” and the listed crimes to which the provision may apply are rigorously limited to those likely to be committed by such groups.
Few other countries limit the scope of the law as strictly as Japan does. – Yours, etc,
NORIO MARUYAMA,
Press Secretary,
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Japan,
Tokyo.