“Political Neutral” Consideration Swaying Local Government September 7 16:15

It has been more than a month since a part of the exhibition was canceled due to threats at an international art festival held by Aichi Prefecture. How should the administration be involved in expression activities in “public places”? It seems that local governments across the country are now worried.

Support policy changed

“I really feel that we need to be more careful in this era.”

The person in charge in Chigasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, announced the “support” by the local government.

The organizer of the event can place a flyer in a public facility when the “support” of the local government is received, or can announce the event in the publicity magazine of the local government.

However, the city reviewed the operation policy of sponsorship as follows.

"In the case that there is a risk of misunderstanding citizens if the city approves of certain principle claims, it may be disapproved."

The reason for this is that when we sponsored a movie screening about “comfort women” in the city last year, more than 800 protests and opinions were received, which hindered the normal operations of the government.

"The position of wanting to support as many civic activities as possible has not changed, but as a result, there have been cases in which citizen life and administrative services have been hindered. In some cases, it is difficult to judge political neutrality. I want to judge carefully because there is a story. ''

Even in other municipalities ...

The government's consideration for “political neutrality” is spreading nationwide.

When we investigated cases in which the government refused to support citizen activities or requested changes in the contents of the whole country, we found 43 cases in just over 5 years. Many of them dealt with themes of different opinions such as “nuclear power” and “constitution”.

What do professionals see?

Professor Yoshihiro Yokodai of Keio University Law School, who is familiar with the freedom of expression of these local governments' attitudes, said, “Citizens can express themselves without any support from the government. “It ’s hard to say that it ’s infringing,” he said.

“You can understand the political position of being politically neutral, but if you don't announce the event through local public relations, etc., there is a possibility that citizens will have fewer opportunities to know and may lose opportunities to interact with expression activities. Given that the environment where people can touch the view is important for the formation of citizens' personality, I think that the spread of administrative self-restraint is not a desirable situation for society. ''