Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition Wednesday decided to skip an upper house committee vote on a bill to criminalize the plotting of serious crimes.
The coalition used its majority on Wednesday evening in the upper house steering committee to vote to forego the judicial affairs committee where the bill was being debated.
The bill is almost certain to now be enacted as the ruling coalition will use its majority vote in a plenary session of the upper house, although the unorthodox move has outraged opposition parties who have vowed to use every possible means necessary to impede the bill's passage into law.
The tactic being used by the ruling camp, while technically permissible, runs against the conventional legislative process and lawmakers from the main Democratic Party said earlier on Wednesday that they will likely file a no-confidence motion against Abe's Cabinet.
With the bill being scrapped three times previously, opposition party heads maintain that the few semantic changes made to the final draft of the bill are not enough for them to sign off on its passage into law.
In the latest iteration of the bill, which is aimed at amending the law on organized crime, the charge of conspiracy has simply been reworded as "preparations for terrorism or similar acts."
Versions that have since been scrapped applied to "broader" groups, but the current one specifies the legislation applies to "organized criminal groups."
The proposed charge would apply to groups of two or more people found to have planned one of 277 listed crimes, with at least one of them having made advanced preparations such as scoping out a potential location.
Opposition parties, legal scholars and civil rights groups, however, are adamant that the bill could be arbitrarily applied to ordinary citizens and allow law enforcement authorities undue rights to infringe on civil liberties by way of unrestrained surveillance, for example.
In recent weeks, protestors with banners, placards and leaflets have been lobbying around parliament in Tokyo seeking for the bill to be scrapped.
Protestors have been quoted as saying the government is "using" upcoming major international events to be held in Japan as excuses to force the bill's passage and drew similarities with Abe's LDP-led thrusting of controversial security legislation through both chambers of parliament, which has vastly changed the nation's military dynamic.
The government's push for the latest version of the bill to become law is also, purportedly, to ratify the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which Japan signed in 2000.
The UN convention has been ratified by 187 signatories and the ruling camp has said that it is essential for Japan to also add its name ahead of hosting the Rugby World Cup here in 2019 and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics thereafter in 2020.
The opposition camp insists, however, that due to the lack of sufficient deliberation in parliament the bill does not have the public's support.
The bill also drew criticism from the UN special rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joseph Cannataci, who said it could lead to excessive constraints on the rights to freedom of speech and privacy owing to its potentially wide reaching scope.
