Consumers Union of Japan strongly opposes the TPP agreement as a whole, which we regard as a threat to our rights, and calls for a movement to prevent Japan from participating in the TPP October 5, 2015 Consumers Union of Japan On October 5, 2015, the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations were concluded at a ministerial round in the US city of Atlanta. Thus the TPP has reached a new stage. These complex negotiations still have contradictions and need further legal adjustments before countries can ratify the agreement and enact it into national legislation. The debates and deliberations will now also begin in earnest in the parliaments of each member country.…
Say No To “My Number”
Put the implementation of the “My Number” system on hold! From October 2015, the people living in Japan will get a notice in the post from the government, including foreigners. It will contain an ID number consisting of 12 digits. All Japanese citizens and foreigners who reside in Japan will be included in the new system. The government claims that the system is necessary “to manage information efficiently in the fields of social security, tax and disaster management.” But it will also cover many other issues, including giving the government access to data about bank accounts and even medical information. There is also a controversial proposal to link the ID…
120,000 People Demonstrated Against War Bills, Or “Security Bills”?!
120,000 People Demonstrated Against War Bills By Sugiura Yoko, Consumers Union of Japan I participated in the large demonstration outside Japan’s parliament on August 30, 2015, against the proposed war bills, demanding that the Abe government withdraw the bills. Our goal was that over 100,000 people would participate, but the organizers estimated that over 120,000 people showed up. It was the first time we brought the blue flag of our new group, Consumers and Citizens for Article 9. Together with Consumers Union of Japan’s green flag, we shouted our slogan, “We oppose the war bills!” “It’s my first time to participate in a demonstration,” said a friend as we walked…
Will Japan and the U.S. Align on TPP Provisions That Harm Japanese Creators?
Guest post over at Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) about copyright issues and the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations – did Japan move closer to the US positions during the recent Maui talks in July, 2015? Martin J. Frid, with Jeremy Malcolm, formerly at Consumers International: Japan’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will see a wide range of changes sweeping the economy and the community, in areas as diverse as food safety/food security, country of origin labeling rules, and copyright. As a staff member of Consumers Union of Japan, I am concerned about all of these issues—but I’m writing here about the copyright changes, which unlike in many other TPP countries…
Urgent: Do Not Approve Restart Of Old Sendai Nuclear Plant!
On August 4, 2015, Consumers Union of Japan participated in the meeting in the Japanese Parliament on the issue of the restart of the Sendai Nuclear Plant No. 1 reactor in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan. Mr. Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister at the time of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant accident in 2011, attended the meeting where two officials from the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) were invited by Mr. Kan to answer questions between 1:30 and 5:00 PM. It is 31 years since the Sendai Nuclear Plant’s oldest reactor first began operating on July 4, 1984. Construction started in 1979. Japan now has rules that state that nuclear plants that…