Japan's court approved surveillance of Muslims

Japan's Supreme Court has upheld the government's blanket surveillance of the country's Muslim community.

The court struck down the second appeal by Japanese Muslim plaintiffs against what they perceive as an unconstitutional invasion of their privacy and freedom of religion.

A 2010 leak of 114 police files revealed nationwide surveillance of Japanese Muslims. The files revealed that Muslim places of worship, halal restaurants and Islam-related organisations across the capital, Tokyo, were being monitored.

Within a few weeks of the leak, the data had been downloaded 10,000 times in 20 different countries from a file-sharing website.

A group of 17 Japanese Muslims, mostly from Middle Eastern and North African countries, decided to sue the Japanese government for infringing on their constitutional rights.

Mohamed Fujita, a native of Japan who converted to Islam over 20 years ago, is one of the 17 plaintiffs fighting the surveillance.

The Supreme Court finally dismissed the case after two appeals on 31 May.

The plaintiffs were awarded ¥90 million ($880,000) as compensation due to violation of their privacy by the leak.

However, the presiding judges did not make a judgment on police profiling and surveillance tactics which a lower court had upheld as "necessary and inevitable" to guard against international terrorism.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Junko Hayashi said: "We were told we don't have a constitutional case, we're still trying to figure out how it is not constitutional."

According to Hiroshi Miyashita, a law professor at Chuo University who’s an expert on privacy issues, the lawsuit was the first major legal case in Japan to highlight mass surveillance. However, a state secrets law that came into force in 2014 would shield the issue from public and judicial scrutiny. “Even judges cannot access information” about police practices under the new law, he added.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the National Police Agency refused to comment on the court decision, and would not confirm whether they continue to profile and monitor Japan’s Muslim community.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/muslims-japan-government-surveillance-top-court-green-lit-islamaphobia-a7109761.html

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1132745/japans-top-court-approves-blanket-surveillance-muslims/

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

Playmaker#10

And that's why we barely hear of any islamic terrorism in Japan.

Although this might be a bit extreme but at-least there won't be any significant acts of terrorism in the country, thank God Japan don't have left wing retarded unions like the ACLU telling us that "this is against their civil human rights" like they have in America.

Reply 2

oShahpo

I am a liberal, an Ex-Muslim and an Arab and I stand by that a 100%!
On the risk of sounding a bit 1983-ish, I don't find mass surveillance wrong. Mass surveillance, in the case of Muslims, is good for all because it WILL reduce acts of terror, and it's good for Muslims because it evades the need to actually discriminate against the Muslims by banning them from certain places or forcing them to do certain things. In other words, were I a Muslim, I would rather be surveilled by officials than be untrusted or discriminated against.

Reply 3

oShahpo

Original post by Playmaker#10

Why do you have to insult people who disagree with you? Can you not understand their side of the argument?

Reply 4

Playmaker#10

Original post by oShahpo

Why do you have to insult people who disagree with you? Can you not understand their side of the argument?

Look into the history of the ACLU and understand why I call them retarded, it's not even because I disagree with them

Reply 5

Playmaker#10

Original post by oShahpo

I think you mean 1984 bro.

That's the title of the book

Reply 6

M14B

Good on the Japanese!!

Reply 7

Asolare

I was gonna complain because of the privacy leak, but considering they got compensation and they've toughened restrictions that's better.

Not sure how much I agree with mass surveillance on this scale though.