Censorship OK in Japan

We read:

"It is hardly surprising that Japan's technophile population has created one of the world's most vibrant internet cultures and arguably its biggest blogosphere. What observers consider strange, however, is the muted response to a government proposal to scrutinise and regulate all internet content in the same way that it controls newspapers and television broadcasts.

Some critics have accused the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed the country for all but one year since 1955, of trying to stifle dissent and exert control over political expression. But by and large the controversial proposal, unprecedented for a democratic country, has passed without comment. The suggested regulations are included in a Government report, Comprehensive Legal System For Communications And Broadcasting, and will be put to parliament in a bill in 2010.

Most alarming, critics say, is the decision to target kozensei - an ambiguous term meaning "content that has openness". This would make millions of unregulated services, including blogs, personal websites and bulletin boards, eligible for forcible correction or closure.

Kazuo Hizumi, a journalist-turned-lawyer who blogs on media issues, has been particularly scathing: "If you look at the fascist movement in prewar Japan, the dangers in the regulation of information by the Government are obvious. "That the Government is going to get involved in selecting, by means of filtering software, what information should be blocked - this is completely outrageous. This absolutely cannot be allowed."

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