Dear Forum Members,

The Abe administration achieved great success in expanding police power by passing legislation that LDP leaders had sought for decades. Key achievements:

Expanded wiretapping authority, 2) formally recognized plea bargaining (first employed in the Ghosn case); 3) expanded state secrecy powers, backed by sharply increased penalties against leakers and others; 4) legislation creating the crime of "conspiracy."

The Abe team managed to achieve all this despite opposition from the bar associations, much of the news media and public intelligentsia, and tens of thousands of protesters that repeatedly gathered before the Diet. I think the polling data was nearly uniform in showing majorities opposed to all of these initiatives. Abe managed to push all this through while winning every election.

At the same time that he bolstered police powers, Abe managed to bypass Constitution Article 9, first by the 2014 Cabinet resolution and then by the 2015 package of national security laws.


This is a tremendous record of achievement.

Larry Repeta


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www. lawrencerepeta.com

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