South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 stunned Japanese who were watching the events in Seoul unfold on their screens. But it also got them thinking.

Could such a thing happen in Japan? And would Japanese citizens and politicians have the guts to put their lives on the line to protect democracy?

Under martial law in South Korea, all political activities, including rallies and demonstrations, were prohibited, and the media was placed under state control.

Yoon, who was facing difficulties managing the country, apparently resorted to the emergency measure to protect his grip on power.

However, his decree was lifted overnight due to resistance from the South Korean public and National Assembly members.

Japan has no provision in its Constitution about martial law, and its political system is very different than South Korea’s.

But Japan certainly is not immune to attacks on its democracy.

“I cannot forget the moment late at night when I kept watching the live report from in front of the National Assembly,” a woman in her 50s in Yokohama posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Dec 4.

Before dawn on that day, she watched an online live report showing thousands of citizens gathered in front of the National Assembly parliament building in Seoul. They sang songs passed down from movements that led to the democratization of the country in June 1987.

“If it happened in Japan, I would be overwhelmed. I’m not sure if I would be able to rush to Nagatacho, (where Japan’s Diet building is located),” the Yokohama woman, who works as a store clerk, said.

The woman said she feels a connection with South Korea. A fan of South Korean idol group BTS, she has also studied the history of the country.

She could not sleep even after martial law was lifted, so she reread Han Kang’s novel “Human Acts.”

The book describes the Gwangju Uprising, when South Korea’s military violently suppressed the pro-democracy movement in the southern city of Gwangju from May 18 to 27, 1980.

“Some lyrics of BTS songs allude to the Gwangju Uprising,” she said. “ I think that South Korean people can take action in an emergency because their daily lives are tied to the country’s history. I’m not sure if I myself could take action to prevent a change in the course of our country’s history.”

Another Japanese person who posted about South Korea’s martial law was Hirokazu Kamijima, 26.

“I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about what would happen if such an incident occurred in Japan,” he wrote.

To pursue his dream of working in the film production industry, he quit his job to attend a language school in the Philippines.

While watching the events unfold in South Korea, the wife of his Korean friend trembled and told her husband, “If you return to your country under martial law, you will be forced to join the military.”

It made Kamijima think that “democracy could easily end,” even in Japan.

He feels that recent elections have been rife with falsehoods and slander, and that democracy is slowly breaking down.

During the South Korean crisis, 190 National Assembly members, including those from the ruling party, passed a resolution demanding Yoon lift the decree.

After watching this, Kamijima said he wondered, “In Japan, how many politicians in the ruling parties would put their bodies on the line to stop this?”

CREATING DESIRABLE SOCIETY BY OURSELVES

Takayoshi Fukuoka, 60, who runs a publishing business in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, said the events in South Korea should provide a lesson for the world.

“Although there is serious division and cynicism in South Korea, I realized that through its history of oppression and resistance, there is a common understanding that the country must not return to an era of dictators running the military,” he said.

Eight years ago, Fukuoka was at the site of a rally in Seoul where more than 200,000 South Koreans held candles and demanded the resignation of President Park Geun-hye.

“We must keep in mind that there are other ways to voice our objections besides elections,” he said.

Naho Ida, the 49-year-old head of Asuniwa, a general incorporated association that seeks a legal system allowing married couples to choose separate surnames, has been a target of false rumors and online abuse.

“There is a tendency to avoid getting involved in politics and to criticize those who speak out.

Some people hesitate to stand up because of this,” she said.

DarthReider, a 47-year-old Japanese rapper who attends election campaigns nationwide, said, “Japan’s postwar democracy was not won by the citizens themselves, but it started under the U.S. government, which said, ‘You are the sovereigns from today on.’

“We need to build up the awareness that we are the sovereigns and that we are only entrusting our authority to Diet members, and we need to nurture democracy as a means to create the society we want.”