The social media space has become an arena for public discourse, but how to keep that space sound has become a major issue.
Twitter and other social media platforms have recently suspended the accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump. The action came after the outgoing president refused to admit he lost the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, and a mob of Trump sympathizers ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 this year. Trump's accounts needed to be shut down due to the risk he would incite further violence, the social media firms said.
Trump has condemned the moves as a violation of freedom of expression. But that freedom comes with responsibility. The U.S. president bears much responsibility for crime-fomenting utterances that have done so much to harm the common good, and much of the American public believes his banishment from social media was justified.
The social media giants' unilateral moves have been greeted with skepticism in Europe, however. Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stated recently that the "fundamental right" of free expression "can be intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators -- not according to a decision by the management of social media platforms."
In other words, Merkel holds that judging posts feeding disinformation, discrimination and other such ills should not be left to companies, but to society. Indeed, the European Union is moving to impose far more severe management responsibilities on social media firms by building rules making it obligatory for companies to quickly erase harmful internet posts.
In the United States, too, there is growing debate over whether current laws that, as a general rule, protect social media companies and their ilk from legal responsibility for harmful user-generated content should be revised. Japan as well is looking to revisit current rules exempting social media platforms from responsibility for slanderous speech posted by users.
However, a user's follower numbers tend to increase in proportion to the extremism of their posts, which in turn swells the host platform's ad revenues. Trump, who used his Twitter account to spew an unending stream of malignant commentary, had some 8.9 million followers, and used the service to supercharge his political power. And Twitter and other services let this flow go unstaunched for years.
Keio University Law School professor Tatsuhiko Yamamoto commented, "The social media companies bear a heavy social responsibility for their role in the public discourse space. They should make their processes for dealing with harmful posts transparent, and fulfill their duty to explain why a post has been deleted or account frozen."
Each social media firm must of course strengthen their processes for dealing with destructive speech. However, the river of information that runs through their platforms every day is vast, and the companies alone will not be able to eliminate all the harmful posts polluting it on their own. It is essential for users, too, to be able to identify fake information. We need to broadly examine and debate exactly what we want the internet discussion space to be.

While the coronavirus rages in Japan, the new standardized university entrance exam will be held this coming weekend for the first time. Examinees in 11 prefectures will sit the two-day test while those areas remain under a state of emergency. Test takers must be feeling a great deal of anxiety while also having to pay attention to their health.
In addition to the exam's first round on Jan. 16 and 17, a second round will be held on Jan. 30 and 31. The second round will also serve as a makeup exam for the earlier dates. In normal years, the makeup exam is offered in only two locations nationwide, but the second round of the new standardized exam will be held in every prefecture.
We ask that those showing symptoms such as a fever shift their focus to the second round and not push themselves too hard. Feeling unwell would not only prevent them doing their best in the exam, but also, if an individual is infected with the coronavirus they run the risk of spreading it to people around them.
Meanwhile, each university serving as an exam venue must make the utmost effort to prevent infections. They are required to put detailed measures in place, such as having all examinees wear masks and asking them to refrain from talking.
If a test taker falls ill after arriving at the venue, host universities will need to make sure that the individual and other exam takers are not distressed. In such an event, the university will need to have a doctor examine the person in a break room, and while taking their circumstances into consideration, decide whether they should be allowed to sit the test in a separate room or asked to take a makeup exam.
Furthermore, there is a possibility that individual entrance exams conducted by each university from February will be more affected by the accelerated infection spread. This is because unlike the standardized exam carried out in all prefectures, some examinees for the individual exams cross borders between areas with and without high infection rates. For the time being, the central government has not restricted people's movements in such circumstances.
Some universities have introduced their own measures. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, for example, has decided their individual exam's first round test will have fewer questions, be shorter, and pushed back to start in afternoon rather than the morning. This measure is intended to make it easier for examinees traveling from outside Tokyo to complete their testing in a single day trip.
There are fears the situation surrounding the state of infections could worsen. If the selection process for prospective students is changed right before exam day, it will throw test takers into confusion. Universities need to announce their exam policies at an early date in case they become unable to carry out admissions tests as planned.
University entrance exams are an important event affecting test takers' futures. The central government as well as universities across Japan should give utmost consideration to removing any worries prospective students may have.

As part of coronavirus countermeasures, the Japanese government is considering penalizing people who do not comply with virus-related requests and will submit a bill to revise the related law to the ordinary Diet session scheduled to convene on Jan. 18.
The government is mulling amending the infectious disease control law to impose fines on people refusing to be admitted to hospitals or inspected by public health centers. It also plans to impose a fine on firms that fail to comply with requests to shorten business hours by revising the special measures law to tackle new types of influenza and other infectious diseases.
However, penalties come with concerns over controlling personal rights. Out of respect for human rights, it is essential not to impose more restrictions than are necessary. Cool-headed debate should be conducted without being fueled by anxiety.
Under the infectious disease control law, coronavirus patients can be asked to stay at a hospital to avoid spreading the disease. However, there are cases in which people, who are recovering at home or at accommodation due to hospital bed shortages, go outside without permission.
The government says that in such cases it plans to ask patients to be hospitalized, and impose a fine of up to 1 million yen (about $9,620) if they do not comply. By introducing these measures, it aims to increase the effectiveness of coronavirus prevention efforts.
But whether such cases occur to the extent that they hinder the effectiveness of coronavirus countermeasures remains unknown. The government should analyze the actual situation and provide detailed explanations.
Implementing penalties could lead to promoting discrimination against COVID-19 patients. It can be assumed that some patients may refrain from seeing a doctor even if they are ill. There are people who find hospitalization difficult due to family circumstances. Rigid and inflexible responses must be avoided.
The reason the government is considering imposing fines on companies is that an increasing number of firms are refusing to shorten business hours.
Under the current law, however, it is possible for the government to issue instructions -- a stricter response than just asking for compliance -- and announce the names of noncompliant businesses. The government should first make use of the current law to its full extent, then consider imposing penalties as a next step.
It has been difficult for the central government to obtain compliance from businesses as they surely fear economic losses if they voluntarily refrain from certain activities. Expanding the cooperative fund system may increase the effectiveness of coronavirus prevention measures more than introducing penalties does.
When discussions on penalties are held amid rising anxiety due to the spread of infections, it tends to lead to strengthened punitive clauses. Even if penalties are imposed, they must be verified and reviewed once infections are contained.
The state of emergency issued for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures will be expanded to Osaka and two other prefectures in the Kansai region in western Japan.
Until now, the Japanese government and local governments have stood out for their late responses to the resurgence in coronavirus cases. Penalties should not be imposed to make businesses and citizens pay for those mistakes.

This year marks 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in at least 22,000 deaths including indirect fatalities associated with the disasters. While tangible work such as land reclamation and housing construction is almost complete, problems like rebuilding communities and providing emotional support for victims are ongoing.
Notably in Fukushima Prefecture, which suffered radioactive contamination following meltdowns at the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., residents of many municipalities have not returned as expected. Even now, around 37,000 people remain evacuated.
But compared with the past, it seems public's interest in the disaster-stricken areas is fading.
Furthermore, non-coronavirus-related issues have tended to be overshadowed by the pandemic that has swept across the globe since last year.
People in areas hit by the quake and tsunami have a sense of danger that the disaster will be forgotten by others at a faster pace at this rate. It is time to once again question what society has learned from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Ten years ago, people saw cities being engulfed by the tsunami on TV. Due to shortages of goods and planned power outages stemming from the nuclear power plant disaster, people had no choice but to live an inconvenient lifestyle.
These experiences led many to question their values and turn their eyes to their ways of living and the structure of society.
Yuji Shimada, 32, who was studying science and technology at Keio University's graduate school at the time of the disaster, raked mud as a volunteer at one disaster site about six months after March 11, when the magnitude-9.0 quake struck off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture in northeast Japan. Victims there offered him lunch in return, even though it should have been beyond their capacity to do so.
When Shimada returned to Tokyo, he was overwhelmed by the joy of having been able to help others and was brought to the verge of tears.
He became the head of an organization that sends out students to disaster sites as volunteers. While people around him began working at major tech firms, Shimada got a job at a company that provides educational support and other forms of aid to children with disabilities. Now at a different company, Shimada is still making efforts with the same goal to support people.
"I wanted to have a career that allowed me to deal with problems in society. I began thinking that way due to the 2011 disaster," he explained.
At the time, many others at major companies changed their careers and began working at nonprofit organizations making social contributions. Masses of people who began to doubt the government's policies, such as the restarting of nuclear power plants, took to the streets in protest.
According to an opinion poll on social awareness by the Cabinet Office at the time, the ratio of people who said they wanted "to be of help to the society" surged. In particular, the percentage of those in their 20s rose by over 10 percentage points to 70%.
However, the ratio has since been declining as a whole, and last year the figure for people in their 20s retuned to the standard seen before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The reason behind this is the widening of the wealth gap over the last 10 years, which has sapped people's ability to empathize with others -- which is a new problem that Japan is facing amid the coronavirus pandemic. The clear discrimination against COVID-19 patients and health care workers is presumably due to changes in Japanese society.
Under such circumstances, there are still people in many areas struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake who continue activities to pass down their experiences in the disaster.
The nonprofit "Tomioka-machi 3.11 wo kataru kai" (Tomioka 3.11 storytelling association) in Fukushima Prefecture is preparing to send DVDs in which people talk about their disaster-related experiences to others who cannot visit in person. The move comes as many groups have canceled lecture appointments amid the coronavirus crisis.
Evacuation orders over the prefectural town of Tomioka were lifted in the spring of 2017, with the exception of so-called "difficult to return" zones, but the number of residents in the town is only about 10% of what it used to be. As residents' evacuation was prolonged, they had no choice but to make their livelihoods in different places, due to their children entering schools close to evacuation sites, among other reasons. Quite a few people wish to go back, but cannot.
The town's new residents include reconstruction workers. Without their cooperation, the town cannot rebuild itself.
Compared to when former residents huddled together at evacuation centers, dreaming of the day they could go back to their towns, the situation is different. Now there are problems that are hard to solve and hard for outsiders to understand, like rebuilding communities.
Yoshiko Aoki, 72, representative of the association, says, "We would be grateful if people could work together with us and consider what should be done. Please don't let Fukushima become isolated."
Issues that disaster-stricken areas face are similar to those faced by regions with declining populations. Tackling the problem together is not only a help to disaster-hit areas, but can also lead to solving an individual's own problems.
The 10-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake should be an opportunity for many people to turn their attention to the current situation in areas that were affected by the quake and tsunami, and form new bonds with each other.

Amid surging coronavirus cases in the capital region, the Japanese government has called another state of emergency -- effective until Feb. 7 -- for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures: Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba.
Daily infection numbers in the capital topped 2,400 people on Jan. 7 to set another record high. The state of emergency has come too late, and the government bears a grave responsibility for its tardy response to the alarming situation.
Questions remain over the government's decision to limit the latest declaration to Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures. Coronavirus case numbers remain high in regions including Aichi and Osaka prefectures in central and western Japan, respectively, and some governors are calling for their prefectures to fall under the renewed state of emergency. The national government should swiftly respond to their calls.
The new state of emergency's measures primarily focus on stepping-up requests for eateries and other establishments to close early in the evenings. If businesses do not comply, governors can issue stricter instructions to them and even announce the names of non-compliant firms. In a bid to reduce person-to-person contact, companies are requested to enhance their teleworking outlay, and the cap on attendees allowed at events is being lowered.
To increase the emergency declaration's efficacy, it is essential that support schemes are improved to complement requests for reduced operating hours. While the amount of "cooperation money" provided to businesses adhering to requests will be boosted, aid provisions set to expire in January and February include rent reliefs and a special measure in the employment adjustment subsidy program for companies with furloughed employees. It is imperative that seamless measures are delivered by utilizing reserve funds and other resources.
Apart from restaurants and bars, assistance must be provided to businesses that will be affected by the state of emergency, such as cinemas and performing theaters.
The government will reportedly base its decision to lift the state of emergency on whether the capital's infection status has improved to a level equivalent to "Stage 3" -- a surge in infections -- on its four-point severity scale. Economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura cited an example of the daily new infections in Tokyo getting below 500 people as a criterion for that decision.
But are those indices really appropriate? The government must not forget the lessons learned from seeing a third wave of coronavirus infections sweep far and wide after the number of daily new infections had yet to decline sufficiently.
A level in which a viral resurgence can be contained must be aimed for; this means not deciding to lift the state of emergency before a "Stage 2" situation in which Tokyo's daily new infections fall below 300 people.
During the state of emergency, the government must keep a close eye on whether there's a declining trend in the number of people in normally busy areas and on how strained medical systems are, and swiftly strengthen measures as required. The national government is urged to cooperate closely with the governors of prefectures subject to the emergency declaration.
Medical professionals are complaining that the health care system is already falling apart. The government must work hard to contain infections inside and out. The coming month is crucial for settling the third wave of infections.

The novel coronavirus has made a direct hit on the Japanese economy, and laid bare the serious disparities in society. Those in vulnerable positions became even more vulnerable, while those in powerful positions became more powerful. What we see is an extremely lopsided state of affairs.
It has been 10 months since one man in his 50s who had been working as a non-regular employee at a hotel in Tokyo lost his job. His pay was about 70% of that of regular employees, but he was proud of his job offering hospitality to the hotel's guests, and worked as much as any regular employee did for more than 10 years. Now that only non-regular employees like him have lost their jobs, he's not sure what to think.
He hasn't been able to find a new job. He doesn't know how long he can sustain himself as he chips away at his savings. "I'm pretty much resigned to this state of affairs," he said.
The number of non-regular workers -- who tend to be used by employers as a "regulator valve" that can be employed when needed and eliminated when they become a burden -- went down by at least 1.3 million in July 2020. Since then, the situation has not improved by much.
From the beginning, loss of jobs among female non-regular workers who were employed by the lodging and restaurant industries, where wages are low, were prominent. According to research conducted by the Mitsubishi Research Institute, the lower one's income was to begin with, the higher the rate by which one's income declined.
In contrast, however, there was strong growth in the sales of imported luxury cars even under the novel coronavirus crisis. At a major dealer in Tokyo, 30% more Porsche and Mercedes Benzes costing at least 10 million yen each have been sold.
The people buying these cars are so-called "nouveau riche," who are senior executives at IT companies. They reaped the benefits of the widespread adoption of online meetings and online shopping under the coronavirus pandemic. Many of them invested in stocks, and high stock prices that were wildly removed from the realities of the economy offered a tail wind.
The Japanese government will be declaring a state of emergency again. Restrictions on the operations of restaurants and other establishments will be beefed up, prompting fears that disparities in wealth will broaden even further.
At the root of the problem is a major structural change in the Japanese economy.
As economic globalization progressed, companies cut back on labor costs to strengthen their international competitiveness.
With further digitalization, corporate activities became more efficient. This meant that employment numbers were not inclined to go up, and that those who benefited from increased profits became limited.
However, the government has not confronted such issues head-on.
Previous Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized the improvements in employment during his tenure as prime minister, but the truth was that the majority of employment that increased comprised non-regular employment, for a total of a little under 40% of all employment in the country. Consumption remained low, and the economy itself had been stagnant since before the novel coronavirus crisis began.
To rebuild the economy, it was crucial to overhaul "Abenomics," or the Abe administration's economic policy mix, but Abe's successor, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, put forth "self-help" as the first step toward the society to which he aspires. He probably intends to continue with the neoliberalism line of thinking that places importance on competition.
Suga has repeatedly stated that digitalization will become the main driving force of the economy. But that means that there is a risk that major corporations will become even more productive and expand their advantage over small and mid-sized companies.
The government indicated in its economic rebuilding policy that it would work on increasing the productivity of small and mid-sized companies as well through realignment, but if many companies are left behind, it will not help to raise the general level of the economy.
Under capitalism, technological innovation through competition invigorates the economy. But when excessive competition broadens disparities, it has negative effects on the economy.
If the number of people in poverty grows, more people will lose the motivation to work. People will no longer have the money to allocate to their children's education, which could possibly work to cement societal disparities. Economic vitality will be diminished, and ultimately productivity will fall.
Toshiaki Tachibanaki, a visiting professor at Kyoto Women's University who is well-versed in wealth disparity-related issues, says, "In Scandinavian countries, they have struck a balance between policies to distribute income more equally and a high level of economic growth. When many citizens are able to feel secure about their future and society, they work hard and productivity goes up."
The International Labor Organization promotes "decent work," which refers to work that delivers sufficient income, offers meaning and satisfaction, and is appropriate for human beings. If the number of people who can live stable lives grows, so does the base of people who can become consumers.
Closing the gap between the poor and the wealthy, and thereby creating a solid middle class will lead to economic stability. To accomplish that, it is imperative that income redistribution be reinforced.
Until now, taxes charged to people with large incomes and assets have been reduced. But the system should be changed so that the richer people are, the more taxes they are forced to pay.
The brakes must be put on global competition to reduce corporate taxes that has continued in recent years, which has included Japan among its players. There is a need to ask such businesses as IT companies to bear more of the burden.
Improving treatment of non-regular workers is another task that must be carried out promptly. Japan must raise its minimum wage, which is still lower than that of Europe. Equal pay for equal work must be ensured, and arrangements must be made to employ more people as regular employees and not non-regular employees.
We are under pressure to effect fundamental change in our economic structure. We cannot expect a sound economic recovery if we continue to have deep societal gaps in wealth. Correcting the disparities we see in Japan's society will become the very foundation of its economic recovery.

Though the new year usually comes with new hopes, Japan doesn't seem so optimistic, due to the expectation that 2021 will be the second chapter in the distressing fight against the coronavirus. We haven't yet found the perfect answer to how to respond to the pandemic. Even with the vaccines, it may be too early to feel relief.
Amid these concerns, there is a troubling increase in a certain sense of crisis, namely the suspicion that our democratic government lacks the ability to respond to the pandemic. Democratic politics places importance on the process of consensus building, and the time it takes to make decisions has been pointed out as one of its drawbacks. This disadvantage has become apparent in the battle against the ruthless enemy that is COVID-19.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States, democracy's standard-bearer, has exceeded 20 million. The U.S. having the greatest number of cases in the world is symbolic of this crisis.
China, on the other hand, despite it being the place where the virus was first confirmed, used its authoritarian administration to implement countermeasures swiftly, including whole-city lockdowns and using information technology to monitor its citizens. China was able to reduce the spread of the coronavirus at an early stage.
After the end of the Cold War, the idea that freedom and democracy goes hand in hand with a market economy spread. It was said that even China would move in the direction of democracy if it wanted to improve its people's standard of living.
However, the progress of globalization changed this course; in rich nations, those in the middle- and lower-income classes saw only sluggish improvement in their earnings, people became less tolerant of each other, and inequality and division spread. Since the worldwide financial crisis in 2008, anti-globalization and nationalism have gained momentum, and populist politicians have made their presence felt.
Individuals must be relatively equal to maintain the mindset of supporting one another to build a society, but this has become difficult with the fall of the middle class -- the foundation of socio-economic life. Donald Trump became the U.S. president, and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. The coronavirus pandemic hit right in the middle of all this difficulty, accelerating the crisis.
So, what about Japan? Its basic statistics also reveal undesirable trends. The number of non-regular workers has increased significantly since the 1990s, and now make up nearly 40% of all employees. Despite the "equal pay for equal work" slogan, the irrational gap in how regular and non-regular workers are treated is showing no signs of closing. And it is ranks of non-regular workers that are being used as employment adjustment valves amid the coronavirus-induced economic crisis.
In addition, there are gaps between Tokyo and other regions, as well as between men and women; the number of female politicians in Japan remains low in international comparisons.
Shigeki Uno, professor of political philosophy at the University of Tokyo, explained, "A shift that can be termed re-feudalization, where your future is largely determined by which group you belong to, is growing stronger in Japan. The sense that individuals do not have the power to tackle disparity is dominant. This is the biggest crisis."
Has the national government made efforts to engage in dialogue with citizens facing this crisis?
Last spring, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the abrupt decision to temporarily close all schools across the country. Preparations for the move were made among just a small coterie of his aides, and the measure's scientific grounding as a coronavirus countermeasure was weak at best. Citizens began to feel that they were being tossed about by politics, and grew distrustful of the government.
Current Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga inherited this style of politics, bereft of explanations. Since coming to power, Suga has held just three press conferences at his office, even as infections continue to spread.
The phrase, "I will refrain from answering," which stood out as his go-to during the latest Diet session, is equivalent to Suga sterilizing the soil from which trust grows. The role of a democratic government is to respond open-mindedly to those with different opinions and expand the scope of those who agree. If Suga stood on that premise, that phrase -- "I will refrain from answering" -- would be taboo. However, it is impossible not to feel a sense of crisis when he uses those words repeatedly without hesitation.
But there is still hope that democracy can regenerate itself.
More than 150 million people cast ballots in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, with voter turnout reaching a record high. It can be said that the turnout tells us more about the future than the result of the election.
Politicians with diverse backgrounds including Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arriving on the stage also raises our hopes for the future.
As citizens steer clear of many activities amid the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, they are becoming more attuned to the country's politics through websites, newspapers and TV. The fact that the Cabinet approval rate fell close to the end of the Abe administration and recent changes in the Suga Cabinet's approval ratings suggest citizens' awareness.
A House of Representatives election must be held by October this year, and it will be a chance to understand how much damage has been done to politics, and to illuminate the path to recovery.
Democratic government makes mistakes, but one of its advantages is that the people can fix them. The new year should be focused on overcoming these problems, even if it takes time and effort.

A number of patients in Japan recently suffered serious health damage including loss of consciousness after taking medicine to treat nail fungal disease and other such ailments, because the medicine had been contaminated with a sleep-inducing drug during production.
The contamination is serious and shakes the very foundations of trust in medicine. A thorough investigation must be conducted into the cause of the incident, and measures must be taken to prevent a recurrence.
According to Kobayashi Kako Co., the pharmaceutical company in the central Japan prefecture of Fukui that produced the tainted medicine, over 200 people suffered health damage. Two people also died after using the medicine, and the company is investigating the relationship between their deaths and their use of the contaminated drug. In addition to the health damage, over 20 traffic accidents occurred after users of the tainted medicine became faint while driving.
At the pharmaceutical firm, substances were apparently added to drugs because they decreased in quantity during the manufacturing process. But instead of boosting the amount of the original substance, a worker added a soporific, or sleep-inducing drug.
The soporific was stored in a container that was different in shape from the original medicine, and it remains unclear how the mistake was made. In the first place, the addition of drugs is not permitted under production procedures approved by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and is unthinkable.
Furthermore, problems have emerged with the systems in place at the company.
There were records remaining which showed that the worker had mixed the soporific into the antifungal medication. Furthermore, data from sample testing conducted before the medicine was shipped out suggested that it had been tainted with a foreign substance. If proper organizational checks were functioning, then the company would have been able to notice the abnormality and prevent the contaminated product from being shipped.
Together with the Fukui Prefectural Government and other parties, the health ministry conducted an on-site inspection at Kobayashi Kako. Officials plan to check whether there were any problems with the company's manufacturing processes and safety administration, and dish out strict punishments.
The latest anomalies were detected after alerts by doctors who noticed the damage to patients' health and strongly requested that the sale of the medicine be halted.
A doctor in the Gifu Prefecture city of Takayama in central Japan not only phoned a distributor of the medicine, but in order to convey the seriousness of the matter, handed a person in charge at the company documentation on the cases of seven people who had caused in traffic accidents after taking the medicine.
Over 10 years have passed since the recently tainted medicine first went on sale, and it had a good reputation for being effective. Doctors and patients alike assume that the same medicine will be supplied with the same quality, so if reports about the abnormalities had been filed later, then the damage could have been greater.
Government measures to prevent damage tend to focus on new drugs. In particular, information on side effects is collected predominantly in the first six months after a drug goes on sale.
With the lessons learned from this contamination incident, there is a need to consider how information is collected in the future, on the premise that damage could occur even with drugs that are not new.

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe provided explanations to the Committee on Rules and Administration in both chambers of the Diet on Dec. 25 over allegations that his office illegally subsidized dinner functions held the night before cherry-blossom viewing events that he hosted as prime minister.
Abe said that a secretary subsidized the functions without him knowing, and that he fully believed the secretary's explanation that no subsidies were provided when he gave statements in the Diet that differed from the facts.
But the suspicions against Abe have only deepened.
It is said that the money used to subsidize the functions came from "cash on hand" from Abe's own deposits that he had entrusted to his office. The subsidies totaled about 7 million yen (approx. $67,600) over four years. It is incomprehensible that his secretary would make his own decision to use this money without bothering to report it to his boss.
Abe previously maintained that statements of expenses from the hotel that hosted the dinner functions had "not been issued." Now he has switched his line to saying that those statements retained by the hotel can't be publicly released because they are commercial secrets.
Meanwhile, the motive for the secretary failing to list the subsidized amounts in political funding reports has yet to come to light.
The problem goes beyond the scope of the pre-sakura party functions. The heart of the issue is that the cherry blossom-viewing parties, held at the taxpayer's expense, became events where Abe appropriated authority for himself, as he is said to have invited hundreds of his local supporters.
When Abe was probed by the Committee on Rules and Administration on this issue, he merely referred to procedures for recommending people to be invited to the party, and remained tight-lipped on why such a large number of his supporters received invitations.
The panel session was held for Abe to provide explanations, after he said that he wanted to amend his statements. But just like when he was serving as prime minister, he failed to respond squarely to questions from the opposition parties, and used up time by talking at length about matters he had not been asked about.
In response to questions in which lawmakers asked Abe about the facts, he even evaded an answer at one point by stating, "I didn't receive advance notice about that." With such an attitude, doubts remain over whether he intends to fulfill his responsibility to provide proper explanations.
According to the House of Representatives' Research Bureau, Abe made false statements in the Diet at least 118 times. If his fallacious statements were to go unchallenged, then verbal arguments in the Diet could not stand. Is he aware that this is a serious problem undermining the foundations of democracy?
Abe's strained explanations give rise to new suspicions. As false testimony is the problem, it is necessary to question him as a sworn witness, where he could face perjury charges if he provided false statements, and uncover the truth.

Japan's Supreme Court has nullified a Tokyo High Court decision that refused to grant a retrial to former death row inmate Iwao Hakamada over a 1966 murder case in which four members of a family were slain in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan.
The top court sent back the case to a lower court on the grounds that it "has not been thoroughly tried," and the case will be addressed once again in the high court. The highest court's decision opens the possibility of a retrial.
The focal point of contention is bloodstains left on clothing found in a miso tank near the crime scene a year and two months after the murder. The bloodstains were said to belong to the perpetrator.
The Shizuoka District Court earlier decided to reopen the case based on a DNA analysis of the bloodstains, which suggested they did not belong to either Hakamada or the victims. The Tokyo High Court then rejected the credibility of the DNA test, which was upheld by the top court.
The Supreme Court focused on the colors of the blood marks. Investigation records from the time of the murders stated that the bloodstains were reddish. However, in an experiment to replicate the stains commissioned by the defense counsel for Hakamada, bloodstains turned blackish over time during the miso fermentation process. The top court demanded that the Tokyo High Court reexamine this point.
The clothes were used as primary evidence to convict Hakamada. And now the Supreme Court appears to be calling into question the credibility of the clothes as evidence.
Two of the top court's five justices argued for an immediate start of a retrial on the grounds that the DNA test was reliable.
In the first place, 44 of 45 confession statements submitted to the court have not been adopted in the trial. This betrays heavy-handed investigations that were overly dependent on Hakamada's confessions.
Hakamada is now 84 years old. Even since he was released from prison after spending 48 years behind bars, he has been placed in an unstable situation with the revocation of a court decision to reopen the case.
The court should reopen the trial at an early date, given the ironclad rule for a criminal trial that gives a defendant the benefit of the doubt.
The series of events surrounding Hakamada's trial highlights problems with Japan's retrial system in that it takes too much time. It took a full 27 years before the top court finalized the dismissal of his first retrial request.
For his second and latest appeal for retrial, the court decisions were twice overturned. In a 1961 wine poisoning murder case in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, a former death row inmate died in prison after his retrial request followed a similar trajectory.
In Hakamada's case, approximately 600 pieces of evidence were disclosed only after his second retrial request was filed, including photos of the clothes taken immediately after their discovery in the miso tank. The evidence was disclosed only after a court advisory was issued. It is necessary to establish a system to mandate prosecutors to disclose evidence they have.
In Japan, a retrial has long been described as "a door that doesn't open." Amid such circumstances, a court decision to reopen a case carries significant weight. Authorities are urged to look into a system for the court to initiate retrials without any delays.