Bill Eyed in Japan on Sanction over Human Rights Abuses Abroad

Tokyo, Feb. 9 (Jiji Press)--A suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers will soon be formed to draw up legislation to enable the country to impose sanctions over grave human rights violations abroad, it was learned Tuesday. The group, to be joined by lawmakers of ruling and opposition parties, will aim to submit the legislation to the ongoing regular session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, for enactment during the session. The envisioned lawmaker-initiated bill, which would apparently take account of human rights abuses in countries such as China, is expected to call for sanctioning individuals involved in human rights violations overseas by freezing their assets in Japan and banning their entry into the country. The bill will take a cue from Magnitsky Act in the United States, which was enacted in 2012 in response to the 2009 death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison. Former Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who serves as co-head of a different suprapartisan group of lawmakers that discusses policy on China, revealed the initiative at Tuesday's meeting of the group. The group started to work on drafting the bill in response to Beijing's tighter control over Hong Kong. As the group does not involve China-friendly Komeito, the coalition partner of the LDP, a need to establish a new group that does not target specific countries emerged in order to seek wider support. "The government needs to be able to take action to eliminate discrimination and human rights violations," Nakatani told reporters, noting that showing concern only cannot resolve problems. END