The Human Rights Committee this morning concluded its consideration of the seventh periodic report of Japan on how it implements the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with Committee Experts welcoming the provision of public housing to same sex couples, and raising issues concerning the death penalty and the removal of children from their families.
One Committee Expert welcomed that the revised Public Housing Act removed the exclusion of same sex couples from public housing. However, discrimination in relation to public housing could continue for same sex couples, as the revised law gave discretion to local municipalities to determine who received housing. How did the State party prevent this?
A Committee Expert noted that Japan continued to carry out executions and sentence people to death, and had not set up a mandatory system of review in capital cases. What measures were in place to consider the abolition of the death penalty or reduce the number of eligible crimes; to give reasonable advance notice of the scheduled date and time of execution to death row inmates and their families; and to establish a mandatory and effective system of review in capital cases?
Another Committee Expert expressed serious concerns about reports that children could be removed from their family without a court order and without clear evidence of parental abuse. There was also allegedly a strong financial incentive for Child Guidance Centres to receive more children. What measures were in place to respond to these issues?
On the issue of the provision of housing, the delegation said that the Government had been working to eliminate discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. Measures had been implemented to prevent discrimination against them in the workplace. Since 2011, counselling services had been provided for students, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex students, regarding human rights issues. Same sex couples would be allowed to access public housing in Tokyo from November 2022.
On the death penalty, the delegation said that notice of execution was given to the person on death row on the day of their execution to protect the peace of mind of the death row inmate. Death penalties were issued under a strict, three-tiered system, and were only carried out when the Minister of Justice decided that reviews of rulings were not needed. An additional mandatory review system on the death penalty was not required. Each country should decide on whether to implement the death penalty based on public opinion. Many Japanese persons supported the death penalty, and thus it was not appropriate to suspend it.
On the removal of children from their families, the delegation said that the Government had amended the Child Welfare Act and introduced a mandatory review of the removal of children. Removal was taken as a last resort measure in the best interest of the child. There had never been economic incentives for removing children from their parents.
In concluding remarks, Takao Imafuku, Deputy Director General and Deputy Assistant Minister of the Foreign Policy Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and Head of Delegation, expressed appreciation for the comprehensive and constructive dialogue. The protection of human rights was a tireless and continuous process. The Government would continue to make efforts to promote civil and political rights in accordance with the Covenant, and would continue to engage with civil society on the issues discussed.
Photini Pazartzis, Committee Chairperson, in her concluding remarks, called on the State party to seriously consider ratifying the Committee’s Optional Protocols, and to limit the application of the death penalty to the most serious crimes only. She expressed hope that dialogue on the death penalty would continue, with a view to the progressively phasing it out. She also welcomed that there was consideration of the revision of child protection legislation, and called on the State party to consider creating comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. Ms. Pazartzis, in closing, expressed hope for a continued constructive dialogue with Japan.
The delegation of Japan was made up of representatives of the Cabinet Secretariat; Ministry of Justice; Immigration Services Agency; National Police Agency; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Ministry of the Environment; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology; International Labour and Cooperation Office; and the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The Human Rights Committee’s one hundred and thirty-sixth session is being held from 10 October to 4 November. All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. Meeting summary releases can be found here. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed via the UN Web TV webpage.
The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. on Monday, 17 October, to begin its consideration of the second periodic report of Ethiopia (CCPR/C/ETH/2).
Report
The Committee has before it the seventh periodic report of Japan (CCPR/C/JPN/7).
Presentation of the Report
TAKAO IMAFUKU, Deputy Director General and Deputy Assistant Minister of the Foreign Policy Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and Head of Delegation, said that the Government recognised the importance of dialogue with civil society, and had made efforts to engage with civil society in preparing the State report.
During the reporting period, the Civil Code had been amended and the period of time during which women were barred from remarrying had been shortened. The minimum age for marriage had been set at 18 years old, the same for both men and women, from April 2022. Since July this year, employers with 301 or more regular workers were required to disclose information on gender wage differences. Japan would also hold the World Assembly for Women in December.
Japan had been undertaking efforts to protect the rights of minorities. In 2016, the Government introduced the Hate Speech Elimination Act, which aimed to eliminate unfair discriminatory speech and behaviour. The human rights bodies of the Ministry of Justice provided human rights counselling at Legal Affairs Bureaus nationwide, and counselling was available in approximately 80 languages. Furthermore, in July 2020, “Upopoy,” the National Ainu Museum and Park, was opened as a national centre for revitalising and developing Ainu culture.
The Penal Code was amended in 2017 to allow prosecution without a complaint by the victim. This would reduce the burden on victims and lead to more effective responses to sexual crimes. During the fiscal year 2021, audio visual recordings were made for approximately 94 per cent of in-custody questioning conducted by the public prosecutors.
To ensure proper operation of the Technical Intern Training Programme, on-site inspections were conducted at relevant organizations. In fiscal year 2021, more than 28,000 such on-site inspections were carried out. The Government would continue to carefully discuss how to properly implement this programme to ensure that trainees were received appropriately.
The Government granted refugee status for 654 persons in 2021, triple the 2014 number. Hardly any of the applicants were kept in detention, even if they did not have residential status. Almost 2,000 evacuees from Ukraine had been accepted as of the end of September 2022. Japan was trying to avoid detention in deportation proceedings as much as possible, and to ensure that detention duration was kept as short as possible. As of the end of 2021, among persons to whom a written order of detention or deportation had been issued, the ratio of those detained by the Immigration Bureau was less than two per cent. In addition, the average detention period for those who were subject to deportation proceedings in 2021 was approximately 80 days. The Government was considering amending the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act to legally define alternatives to detention and to further improve the treatment of detainees.
Last year, a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for International Human Rights Affairs was appointed to promote efforts related to human rights. The Government would continue to make efforts to ensure that civil and political rights were respected and secured.
Questions by Committee Experts
A Committee Expert asked about concrete measures to implement and review the implementation of the Committee’s previous concluding observations. The State party had provided only one example of a Supreme Court ruling that referred to the Covenant. What were some other examples of its application in both judicial and non-judicial settings? What training on the Covenant was provided for lawyers, judges and prosecutors?
The Supreme Court had found the provision of the Family Register Act requiring indication of whether children were legitimate or illegitimate was not unconstitutional. The Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2019 had suggested that the term “illegitimate child” be totally abolished. Did the State party intend to revise this legislation and adopt measures to prevent discrimination against all children and their mothers?
The Committee was seriously concerned about reports that children could be removed from their family without a court order and without clear evidence of parental abuse. There was also allegedly a strong financial incentive for Child Guidance Centres to receive more children. Further, the Committee was concerned about reports of parental child abductions in Japan. What measures were in place to respond to these issues?
What was the State party’s current position on accession to the Optional Protocol providing for an individual communication procedure?
The Committee was concerned about the proposed deletion of article 97 of the Constitution, which upheld the inviolability of fundamental human rights, as part of proposed constitutional revisions. Was this proposal still being discussed?
Another Committee Expert asked about progress in establishing an independent national human rights institution in accordance with the Paris Principles.
The Expert took note of the 2015 Supreme Court decision that the six months period in which women could not remarry following divorce was unconstitutional, and the revision of the Civil Code to shorten the period of remarrying to 100 days. Was the State party considering completely abolishing this waiting period?
Had there been any progress on amending the article of the Civil Code that compelled women to adopt the same surname as their husband? The Expert called for information on women’s representation in the various levels of Government, as well as in the judiciary, diplomatic service and in academia, including of minority women such as buraku, Ainu, and zainichi Korean women.
The Committee was concerned about reports of over 30,000 people who remained displaced due to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, subsisting without sources of livelihood, compensation, or housing assistance, and that they continued to be forced to live in unsafe areas. Was the State party reviewing the high radiation exposure threshold for the designation of evacuation areas? What measures were in place to ensure all internally displaced persons had access to the necessary support? There was reportedly a high prevalence of thyroid cancer in children since the Fukushima accident. What measures were being taken to protect the right to life of people affected by the radiation?
One Committee Expert asked why the State party had not taken steps to adopt comprehensive legislation to address all forms of discrimination, as previously recommended by the Committee. Social harassment and stigmatisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons still persisted in the State party, including discrimination of such persons in accessing essential services.
The Expert welcomed that the revised Public Housing Act removed the exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex couples from public housing. However, discrimination in relation to public housing could still continue for same sex-couples, as the revised law gave discretion to local municipalities to determine who received housing. How did the State party prevent local municipalities from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, and prevent discrimination in general against this group?
The Family Registration Act required that birth registers specified whether children were “legitimate” or “illegitimate”. Why was this?
Discrimination and hate speech against minorities and foreign nationals specifically targeting Chinese, burakumin, ryukyu, other indigenous groups, in particular Koreans and Japanese nationals of Korean descent, was still a major issue in the State party. The 2016 Hate Speech Elimination Act did not explicitly prohibit hate speech and incitement to discrimination, or penalise or criminalise acts of hate speech.
Japan had previously stated that it did not intend to abolish the death penalty oraccede to the Second Optional Protocol, nor to limit the number of offences subject to capital punishment or to consider introducing an official moratorium on executions. It continued to carry out executions and sentence people to death. Japan had also not set up a mandatory system of review in capital cases. What measures were in place to consider the abolition of the death penalty or reduce the number of eligible crimes; to give reasonable advance notice of the scheduled date and time of execution to death row inmates and their families, and refrain from imposing solitary confinement on death row prisoners; and to establish a mandatory and effective system of review in capital cases?
Another Committee Expert asked about the impact of awareness programmes on the equal treatment of different minorities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, in the personnel selection processes and on the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace. What measures were in place to establish a support system in schools for students belonging to sexual minorities?
Japan’s Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Act contained discriminatory provisions that forced transgender people to undergo invasive and unnecessary medical procedures, such as sterilisation and gender-confirming compulsive surgery, and to be unmarried for their gender to be legally recognised. It also described this gender identity as a “mental disorder”. Did the Government plan to revise the Act to ensure transgender people’s rights to equal recognition before the law without undermining their dignity? Did the State party intend to collect disaggregated data to enable preventative actions focusing on suicides caused by discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity? What legislative developments had been made regarding same-sex marriage?
The Committee had expressed concern that the list of offences in the Anti-Conspiracy Act was too broad. Which of the offences listed in this Act were defined as “terrorist acts”? How did the State ensure that this Act did not unduly restrict the freedoms of expression, assembly and association?
One Committee Expert said that the Spousal Violence Prevention Act did not explicitly criminalise marital rape. The Committee commended the Government’s efforts to inform the public about relevant laws on domestic violence, and the support measures introduced that considered the nationalities of the victims. However, the Committee was concerned about the prevalence of cases of domestic violence, especially amongst migrant women. One particularly concerning case involved a Sri Lankan Woman who died in custody at an immigration facility in Nagoya in 2020 after seeking protection from her allegedly abusive partner. Various migrant women such as students were excluded from the social welfare system and services, including the support scheme for domestic violence victims. What measures were in place to protect migrant women from domestic violence, and support their access to social welfare systems and services?
Were there plans to criminalise marital rape? What were the findings of the survey on domestic violence, and what measures were in place to combat domestic violence? Would the State party consider revising the age of sexual consent from 13 to 18 years?
Responses by the Delegation
The delegation said that Japan had engaged in dialogue with civil society regarding the recommendations issued by the Committee.
Japan had not signed the Optional Protocol on individual communication procedures. The Government continued to seriously consider this, taking into account opinions from various stakeholders. Issues had been raised concerning payment of compensation, among others.
There were not many lower court cases that mentioned the Covenant. This was because Japan emphasised consistency between the content of international treaties and domestic law, allowing the courts to concentrate on domestic law.
The term “hichakushutsu” was used on family registers to specify children born to a man and a woman not in marriage. There were some parties who considered the use of this term to be discriminatory. The Government would consider reviewing the use of this term in the family register.
Human rights training was provided at various stages in the careers of members of the judiciary.
The Government had amended the Child Welfare Act and introduced a mandatory review of the removal of children. Removal was taken as a last resort measure in the best interest of the child. There had never been economic incentives for removing children from their parents.
The Government had been discussing the establishment of a national human rights institute with a range of stakeholders. Various issues had been raised, and this was delaying the process.
An amendment to the Civil Code had reduced the period for women’s remarriage to 100 days. An amendment to fully abolish this provision had been drafted. The age of marriage had been raised to 18 years old.
Husbands and wives were required to adopt the same surname, but the law did not specify whether the husband or wife’s surname should be adopted. The Ministry of Justice was considering the adoption of a system allowing for different surnames for married couples. A 2021 public opinion poll had found that 42.2 per cent of people preferred implementing a system that allowed for the use of former surnames after marriage. The Government would continue to discuss the issue with civil society. The Supreme Court had determined that the current surname system was constitutional, although two of the five justices of the court had ruled otherwise. There had been changes in national sentiment concerning different surnames, but there was no need to change the Supreme Court’s decision. The different surname system should be discussed in the National Diet.
Discrimination against certain groups was considered as defamation and potentially as a threat or assault under the Penal Code. Punishing discrimination needed to be done cautiously. Many awareness raising activities were taking place to deepen understanding of the rights of minority groups.
Notice of execution was given to the person on death row on the day of their execution to protect the peace of mind of the death row inmate. Persons sentenced to death were visited by prison officials and were able to access counselling so that they did not feel a sense of isolation.
A request for retrial was not grounds to suspend executions. However, executions were not carried out automatically. The Ministry of Justice carefully considered each case and whether there were grounds to consider a retrial. Executions were suspended if there was reason to believe that the inmate was criminally insane.
Fukushima Prefecture believed that the higher level of thyroid cancer was not an effect of the higher level of radiation. The prefecture had been implementing a health monitoring survey to examine and protect the health conditions of the people of Fukushima. Fukushima Prefecture had also established a fund to support the health of its citizens. Polices had been developed to support access to housing, employment placement, and mental health of affected persons. Health examinations had been provided for infants free of charge. The Government had been conducting activities to decontaminate the affected area.
Respecting foreigners’ human rights was a priority issue for the Government. Human rights bodies had created 30,000 posters and 180,000 leaflets on preventing hate speech, distributing them in a variety of public locations. As part of this campaign, messages were also distributed on social media and the Internet by the Ministry of Justice, which had garnered 57 million impressions. Human rights awareness raising activities were also conducted at sports events.
Consultation was offered for persons who suffered from human rights abuses through hotlines available in various languages. The human rights bodies had been working to address online hate speech, requesting Internet service providers to delete content that violated the Hate Speech Elimination Act. The Act intentionally did not criminalise hate speech. Instead, it aimed to raise awareness on hate speech and prevent it. Respect for cultural diversity was also promoted by the Government. In 2021, there had been 59 cases of human rights violations received by human rights bodies.
There had been 20 demonstrations by right-wing groups in 2021 that were considered to be discriminatory. Five people had been arrested for inciting violence at these demonstrations. The police conducted appropriate investigations of all incidents of discrimination occurring at demonstrations.
The Government did not tolerate any form of domestic violence or sexual and gender-based violence. Any unlawful act between married couples was considered a crime and was prosecuted. If a husband raped his wife, he was subject to criminal procedure and could be indicted. Police made appropriate arrests based on the victim’s wishes. The Government acted quickly to protect the victim and initiate judicial proceedings. Domestic violence incidents had been declining for the last two years. Police officers had been educated regarding domestic violence.
Regarding the case involving the Sri Lankan woman, the officers in charge did not have sufficient knowledge regarding how to handle domestic violence victims. Officers were instructed to fully comply with guidelines on domestic violence, which had been revised.
Immigration service agencies established the legal status of foreign persons. When victims lost their residential status due to domestic violence, they were provided with special protections. Immigration officers were provided with training on domestic violence, and case studies had been conducted on domestic violence.
Measures had been implemented to prevent discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in the workplace. Training was provided for business owners on sexual harassment, including on harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. Leaflets had been prepared to raise awareness on workplace discrimination. Since February 2018, the Government had been notifying the public about services available for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.
Human rights education was promoted in schools. Since 2011, counselling services had been provided for students, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex students, regarding human rights issues. Schools had been encouraged to enhance support of such students. Awareness campaigns were also conducted in schools on these persons’ rights. Training programmes on gender identity were conducted for teachers.
The Government had been working to eliminate discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. The revised Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 2021 called on businesses to take initiatives to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.
The Supreme Court had ruled that legislation on change of gender status was constitutional. The Government considered that this legislation was in line with the Covenant. The Government would continue to pay close attention to trends in similar legislation in other countries.
The Supreme Court had yet to issue a decision regarding the constitutionality of legislation that recognised only marriage between different sexes.
Penal institutions paid attention to gender issues, the delegation said. Body check-ups were conducted by staff that were of the same gender as the inmate, and haircuts were changed based on the gender of the inmate.
No person should be discriminated in the workplace based on their nationality. The Government was monitoring employers to ensure that they did not discriminate against foreign persons or minority groups.
As of August 2022, there were 1,013 claims for compensation made under the Former Eugenic Protection Act. The Government was raising awareness about the compensation scheme through braille leaflets and online advertisements.
Hospitalisation was typically voluntary in Japan, but involuntary hospitalisations took place when the person involved could harm themselves or others. If physicians believed that there was a risk of harm, involuntary hospitalisation was used. Once involuntary hospitalisation was no longer needed, hospitals were required to release the person.
Training programmes were provided for medical staff in institutions regarding the human rights of patients. The Government was enhancing measures to prevent the abuse of persons with disabilities in institutions.
The World Assembly for Women promoted gender equality and women’s empowerment. This year’s Assembly would promote women’s participation in every sector of society.
Death penalties were issued under a strict, three-tiered system. Death penalties were only carried out when the Minister of Justice decided that reviews of ruling were not needed. An additional mandatory review system on the death penalty was not required. Death penalties were issued only for atrocious crimes such as homicide. Each country should decide on whether to implement the death penalty based on public opinion. Many Japanese persons supported the death penalty, and thus it was not appropriate to suspend it.
The Administrative Council was currently considering raising the age of consent for sexual intercourse.
Follow-Up Questions by Committee Experts
A Committee Expert said that there were reports of foreign women disappearing in Japan. It seemed that there were overlapping competencies between the police and prosecution in this regard. Who investigated such cases of disappearance?