Photo/Illutration Protesters voice their opposition on Oct. 6 to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's rejection of six scholars for membership to the Science Council of Japan. (Reina Kitamura)

Academics, movie directors and ordinary citizens hit the streets and issued statements on Oct. 6 to protest Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s still-unexplained decision not to appoint six scholars to the Science Council of Japan.

About 700 protesters gathered in front of the prime minister’s office in Tokyo holding up signs accusing Suga of egregiously violating academic freedom and criticizing him for not appointing the recommended scholars.

Suga has not given a clear reason for his unprecedented rejection of academics recommended by the Science Council. Speculation is rife that the six scholars were denied membership on the council because of their past criticism of government policies.

One of the protesters was Ryuichi Ozawa, a professor of constitutional law at Jikei University in Tokyo, who was one of the six denied inclusion.

“This is an issue involving not only Japan’s academia but the entire populace as well,” he told the gathering. “We should never turn over to the government the independence of the Science Council or the right to select members that is based on sovereignty that lies with the people.”

Many joined the protest after learning about it over social media, including a 71-year-old Tokyo resident, who said, “I thought I had to raise my voice to leave behind the right to conduct free research to future generations.”

Five legal scholars held a news conference and released a statement that said Suga’s action “created a strong concern that the current administration is seeking to undermine academic freedom.”

“The spirit of the law (regarding the Science Council) calls for rejecting recommendations only in extremely rare cases, but there has been no rational explanation given,” Yasuo Hasebe, a constitutional law professor at Waseda University, said at the news conference.

Yuko Tanaka, the president of Hosei University, Suga’s alma mater, issued a message the same day that said rejecting the recommended scholars raises the extremely serious issue of violating academic freedom.

A group consisting mainly of historians gathered about 120,000 signatures over three days in a petition drive asking Suga to retract his rejections.

Yoko Kato, a history professor at the University of Tokyo, and Sadamichi Ashina, a religious studies professor at Kyoto University, were two of the other scholars rejected by Suga.

Their graduate school research groups also issued statements Oct. 6 criticizing the action of the prime minister.

Outside of academia, a group of 22 movie directors, screenwriters and others issued a protest statement that said Suga’s action was “a violation of the freedom of expression and a clear challenge to the freedom of speech.”

Among those who signed the statement was movie director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes international film festival.

Another director, Shinya Tsukamoto, who signed the statement said, “I feel Prime Minister Suga to be very arrogant and tyrannical for excluding even neutral researchers and for not making any effort to explain his reasons for that act.”

Documentary movie director Tatsuya Mori asked that words by German theologian Martin Niemoller be included in the statement.

Niemoller is noted for standing up against the Nazis and writing a poem that has wording to the effect: “First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out. … Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Mori said, “Even if one is in the minority, one must continue to say, ‘This is a danger.’”

(This article was written by Yuji Masuyama, Senior Staff Writer Shuichi Yutaka, Senior Staff Writer Ryuichi Kitano and Senior Staff Writer Noriki Ishitobi.)

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