Paolo Patrizi Photographer

曇り時々晴れ (cloudy with just occasional bright spells)

Japan enacted a state-secrets law toughening penalties for leaks, despite public protests and criticism that it will muzzle the media and help cover up official misdeeds. In Japan, your right to know has been replaced by the right to remain silent. The first rule of the state secrets bill is that a secret is a secret. The second rule is that anyone who leaks a secret can face up to 10 years in prison. The third rule is that there are no rules as to which government agencies can declare information to be a state secret. The fourth rule is that anything pertaining to nuclear energy is a state secret, which means there will no longer be any problems with nuclear power in Japan because you won’t know anything about it. Out of sight out of mind. The right to know has now officially been superseded by the right of the government to make sure you don’t know what they don’t want you to know. The law has been compared to the pre-World War II Peace Preservation Law, which was used to arrest and jail any individual who opposed the government party line.