Kenji Utsunomiya (center) who heads the organization of anti-TPP lawyers speaks at a press conference held in the Bar Association Building in Tokyo on Monday, July 29.
Hiroko Obara
318 lawyers nationwide created a network to support the movement against the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks by analyzing and addressing the risks which the pact could impose on Japan’s legal systems, the representatives of the group announced Monday, July 29.
The group, jointly headed by three lawyers including Kenji Utsunomiya, former president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, submitted a letter of request to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the same day, urging the government to withdraw from the TPP negotiations.
“The TPP agreement poses a threat to all aspects of the people’s lives, including food, employment and environment,” Utsunomiya said. “It is an agreement which places priority on the interests of certain companies and investors, and denies and infringes the national sovereignty.”
The group stressed that the investor-state dispute resolution (ISD) mechanism, which is currently negotiated under the TPP talks to allow companies to sue foreign governments, poses a threat to the judicial rights and the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution. They plan to analyze the system based on other trade pacts such as the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and South Korea and the North American Free Trade Agreement where the system is already introduced.
“We will hold regional study meetings and work on demanding Diet members elected from each region to oppose the pact,” said Hajime Kawaguchi, a lawyer practicing in Aichi Prefecture who proposed the establishment of the organization. “We will also legally support industry groups’ anti-TPP campaigns, and offer information to the people to let them know that it is a matter of each and every one of us,” Kawaguchi stressed.
The lawyers will research the possible impacts of the TPP pact on domestic systems such as labor laws and bidding for local public works projects, and offer information to the public to provide a legal basis for developing anti-TPP arguments.
Masayuki Izawa, a lawyer in Tochigi Prefecture and one of the representatives of the network, said many people are unaware of the real dangers of the TPP initiative. “The essence of the TPP pact is to protect U.S. investors and companies, and to infringe other countries’ sovereignty for that purpose,” Izawa said, expressing determination to fully work on making this network a major anti-TPP movement.
The three representatives of the group are Utsunomiya, Izawa and Koji Iwatsuki, a lawyer from Aichi Prefecture. Kazuko Nakano, a lawyer in Tokyo, will head the secretariat. The group said they hope to invite more lawyers as members.
(July 30, 2013)