6 - The Failure of the Human Rights Vindication Bill

Summary

This chapter analyses the content of the Human Rights Vindication Bill proposed in 2002, after first offering an overview of the history of human rights policy in Japan – especially the system of human rights volunteers and the Buraku Liberation Policy (Dowa policy). The major purpose of the bill was to establish a human rights commission that would seek redress for victims of human rights violations and the bill includes new legal measures such as a demand for an injunction. However, the bill was criticized by politicians, scholars, lawyers, and the media, and it was abandoned the following year. After that, similar attempts were made by national and local governments, but all failed. In this chapter, we examine the causes and the effects of those failures.