Japan Press Weekly

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2015 June 17 - 23 [POLITICS]

Author of illegal political belief survey should not head investigation into personal data leak incident

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Koike Akira on June 16 at a House of Councilors Welfare Committee meeting said that the Welfare Minister should not appoint Nomura Syuya, a lawyer and professor at Chuo University, who led an illegal political belief survey on Osaka city workers, to be the secretary general of an investigation committee to look into an incident where 1.25 million cases of personal data had leaked from the Japan Pension Service.

Koike pointed out that in 2012, Nomura as a special advisor to the Osaka City government conducted a survey which required city employees to answer questions regarding their union membership and political activities. The JCP lawmaker noted that after the Osaka Labor Relations Commission and the Central Labor Relations Commission acknowledged the survey as an unfair labor practice, Mayor Hashimoto Toru apologized to the workers. Koike stressed that the Osaka District Court recognized that the survey infringes on workers’ privacy and the constitutional right to organize, and ordered the city government to pay compensation.

The JCP lawmaker asked Welfare Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa if he was aware of these facts when he decided to choose Nomura as the secretary general of the investigation committee. In response, the welfare minister justified his decision by saying that Nomura is an expert on pension issues.

Past related articles:
> Osaka mayor apologizes to union for his political belief survey [August 7, 2014]
> Labor commission’s decision regarding illegality of Osaka political belief survey finalized [July 26, 2014]