12/82 TRAFFIC LAW DEMO CONTROL CONSTITUTIONAL

On November 16, 1982 the third petty bench of the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that the use of the Road Traffic Law to control demonstrations was in fact constitutional when done with "necessary and rational" bounds for the protection of "public welfare". The court stated that the use of roads is not unconditionally possible based on the freedom of speech provisions of the Constitution. With that five former radical students will be given 6 months to one year jail terms for demonstrations they made 14 years ago in Nagasaki, protesting the entry of the US nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise during the Vietnam War.

THE JAPAN LAWLETTER, December, 1982. By Roderick Seeman