Akio HORIKOSHI, a government official, was arrested in March 2004 by reason of having distributed leaflets saying “Respect the Constitution !”, which allegedly committed the Government Officials Act, near his home on holiday at the general election in previous November. And he was convicted of 100,000 yen fine and two years’ suspension of sentence by the Tokyo District Court in June 2006. But he appealed to the Tokyo High Court. Those who have appealed to the High Court are not only HORIKOSHI who was found unfair guilty, but also the prosecution, appealing to the High Court by protesting that “the sentence was unreasonable”.
At the time the police put a tail on him for 29 days consecutively and a total of 171 policemen took a picture secretly by video camera which was installed in their shoes with a hole. And they submitted it as evidence to the Court. But the Court and the high prosecution have not released but nine video tapes as evidence out of 33 tapes.
In December 2003, when a priest Yosei ARAKAWA distributed news leaflets of a ward assembly at an apartment, he was arrested for trespassing at its corridor by a resident’s report to the police. And he was detained at the police station for 23 days and indicted. He was found innocent at the first trial and many editorials of media supported this decision. But the prosecution appealed the case to a high court without submitting any new evidence and, in December 2007, the Tokyo High Court reversed the lower judgment and imposed a fine on him.
In Japan, the prohibitions of pre-election campaigning and door-to-door visit, and the restriction of distributing leaflets were brought at the same time with the enforcement of the General Election Law in 1925. After the Second World War, although the right to vote was enlarged to women and adults over 20 years old, the prohibition of door-to-door visit and the restriction of political and election campaigning still remain unchanged. Whenever a democratic grass-rooted election campaigning demonstrated its influence, successive ruling parties repeatedly strengthened the restriction against it and violated its fundamental human rights.
After the War, those who were convicted of violation of the Public Offices Election Law (prohibitions of door-to-door visit and distributing leaflets) have reached more than 90,000.
At the time the police put a tail on him for 29 days consecutively and a total of 171 policemen took a picture secretly by video camera which was installed in their shoes with a hole. And they submitted it as evidence to the Court. But the Court and the high prosecution have not released but nine video tapes as evidence out of 33 tapes.
In December 2003, when a priest Yosei ARAKAWA distributed news leaflets of a ward assembly at an apartment, he was arrested for trespassing at its corridor by a resident’s report to the police. And he was detained at the police station for 23 days and indicted. He was found innocent at the first trial and many editorials of media supported this decision. But the prosecution appealed the case to a high court without submitting any new evidence and, in December 2007, the Tokyo High Court reversed the lower judgment and imposed a fine on him.
In Japan, the prohibitions of pre-election campaigning and door-to-door visit, and the restriction of distributing leaflets were brought at the same time with the enforcement of the General Election Law in 1925. After the Second World War, although the right to vote was enlarged to women and adults over 20 years old, the prohibition of door-to-door visit and the restriction of political and election campaigning still remain unchanged. Whenever a democratic grass-rooted election campaigning demonstrated its influence, successive ruling parties repeatedly strengthened the restriction against it and violated its fundamental human rights.
After the War, those who were convicted of violation of the Public Offices Election Law (prohibitions of door-to-door visit and distributing leaflets) have reached more than 90,000.