Posted on November 11, 2015
On October 16, the Saitama City Council adopted a bill to bring the city’s Citizens’ Activities Support Center, which had previously been run as a collaboration between “the city and its citizens,” under direct municipal management. The reason given for the decision was that the facility was being used for political expression by nonprofit organizations registered with it.
Please refer to the following newspaper articles for detailed information.
At the October 16 session of the Saitama City Council, a bill was passed by majority vote (including LDP and Komei) revising an ordinance to transfer the management of the city’s Citizens’ Activities Support Center from a Designated Managing Organization to bring it under direct municipal control. The decision was reached because some civil society groups with preferential treatment for facility use are “engaged in political activities.” Citizens’ groups and intellectuals have criticized the move, saying that “This will lead to restrictions to freedom of assembly, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, and the waning of civil society activities.”
The Designated Management System, under which public facilities are privately managed, was launched in 2003 after revisions to the Local Autonomy Law for reasons that included cost reduction. The more recent revision proposed that until “necessary matters such as management standards” were laid down, the facility could not be managed by a Designated Managing Organization.
City Council member Kenji Aoba (LDP), who proposed the revision, asserted, “We do not mean to regulate political activities, but there should be some fairness regarding preferential treatment in the use of a public facility.” In contrast, opposing member Hiroyuki Doi stated, “Perhaps there is some intention behind the city establishing standards that do not allow some groups to use the facility. This may lead to restrictions on freedom of civil society activities as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
For the purpose of promoting public interest, the Center must be accessible to any nonprofit groups, but registered groups are given priority for things such as pre-booking seats for meetings, etc. There are currently about 1,700 groups registered, and Aoba has identified 14 of them as “engaged in political activities.” Among these is the Article 9 Association, whose secretary-general Shuji Saito (78) says, “If the facility is directly managed by the city, there is a risk of it becoming difficult for us to conduct our activities. For example, we could be blocked from reserving a room. We were not consulted before the revision was adopted, and we feel indignation at this unilateral decision being made.”
Hiroshi Kamiwaki, a constitutional law professor at Kobe Gakuin University says, “If they are saying that use of the facility is not allowed if a group is politically-tinged, this is unconstitutional. In principle, public facilities should be used freely unless there is something extreme.
On October 16, the last day of its September regular session, the Saitama City Council approved by majority vote of the LDP, Komei and independent member Ichiro Yoshida (Kita Ward) a revision of a municipal ordinance to end the management of the Citizens’ Activities Support Center (Urawa Ward, Saitama) under the Designated Management System for the time being and to place it under direct municipal management. This move was opposed by the Democratic Reform and Communist parties and independent member Jun Kawamura (Minami Ward). The Center will be managed directly by the city when the ordinance is enforced on April 1 next year.
The bill, which submitted that some of the groups registered with the Center (and therefore had preferential treatment) were using the facilities for political activities, was put forth by LDP council members Kenji Aoba (Urawa Ward) and Daisuke Ehara (Iwatsuki Ward). The new rule puts an end to the ordinance allowing a Designated Managing Organization to be commissioned to manage the facility until the city establishes management standards to prevent registered groups that conduct political activities deviating from the scope of activities stipulated by the Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities and the city’s Ordinance to Promote Citizens’ Activities, from using the facility.
After the session ended, Mayor Hayato Shimizu said, “Establishing these standards has its difficulties but we would now like to look into the matter.” He also said that collaboration between the people of the city and the government, which had become a feature of the Center, would be difficult to continue, but that “We do not oppose this general direction, and will make efforts in line with the spirit of the ordinance.”
On the same day, five civil society organizations, including some registered with the Center, issued a statement of protest, stating that there was a danger that the revision would lead to restrictions on the freedoms of thought, religion and expression as guaranteed under the constitution.