Photo/Illutration Fukuoka prefectural assembly members support a resolution to introduce an anti-harassment ordinance in Fukuoka on March 10. (Hayato Jinno)

FUKUOKA—Assembly members here moved closer to adopting the first prefectural ordinance in Japan against harassment against assembly members committed by their colleagues.

The prefectural assembly unanimously passed a resolution on March 10 that describes the eradication of harassment as “a pressing problem we must fully devote ourselves to” and vows to work toward putting an ordinance in place.

A draft ordinance is now under discussion. The prefectural assembly plans to adopt the ordinance at a regular session that opens in June.

A consultation section for assembly members will be set up within the assembly’s secretariat so that lawyers and other outside experts can interview both harassment victims and offenders.

The ordinance will also cover harassment of assembly members by constituents, such as abuses that take advantage of their voting rights.

The proposal was made after Yukiko Tsuru, a first-time assemblywoman of Chikugo city in Fukuoka Prefecture, sought advice from the prefecture’s human rights and anti-discrimination bureau in October last year.

Tsuru, 37, said that during a city assembly meeting, an older male colleague harassed her with such comments as, “Hey, you!” and “Stop questioning immediately.”

The prefectural bureau suggested Tsuru consult with the Justice Ministry’s Fukuoka Legal Affairs Bureau about the matter, but it told her that it “cannot intervene in an assembly’s affairs.”

Tsuru’s case was picked up by a local newspaper, and her complaint was heard at a prefectural assembly session. This led the floor to move toward the ordinance on its own initiative.

Harassment among assembly members is seen as a widespread problem nationwide.

But local assemblies are defined as independent entities with an equal status to the executive branch. The Cabinet Office says it is “inappropriate for local administrative authorities to issue instructions to their legislative counterparts in the same way as they do to private businesses.”

To address the problem, cities, towns and villages have been introducing anti-harassment ordinances.

The first one, adopted by Tokyo’s Komae city in June 2018, covers not only assembly members, but also special service personnel, such as the mayor and the head of the secretariat of the board of education. If found to have harassed local assembly members, they can be named and shamed, and their acts disclosed, both in line with the victims’ intention.

No abuse cases have been reported under the ordinance.

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