The Japan Times reports:
[1063 plaintiffs, including lawmakers,] filed a lawsuit against the government on [May 15], seeking to halt Japan's involvement in 12-country talks on a Pacific Rim free trade agreement, which they called "unconstitutional".
[...]The lawsuit is led by Masahiko Yamada, 73, a lawyer who served as agriculture minister in 2010 as part of the Democratic Party of Japan government.
"The TPP could violate the Japanese right to get stable food supply, or the right to live, guaranteed by Article 25 of the nation's Constitution," Yamada, who abandoned his party in 2012 over then-Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's push to join the TPP talks, said [May 14] before the court filing.
The envisaged pact would benefit big corporations but would jeopardize the country's food safety and medical systems, and [would] destroy the domestic farm sector, according to the plaintiffs.
The litigation is another twist in efforts by Japan and the U.S., the top economies involved in the TPP, to expedite talks on the agreement that would cover about 40 percent of the world's commerce.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Tuesday May 19 2015, @01:31AM
Japan has long been described as being a "screwdriver's turn away [wikipedia.org]" from joining the nuclear club. They could build workable nuclear weapons very quickly, so much so that some analysts consider them a de facto nuclear state. Some estimates say that with their resources they could develop full nuclear capability within a year. They have a space program, and some of what they've done (e.g. with the Hayabusa program and its return capsule), appear in part to be a credible demonstration that they can build ICBMs.
If they get pissed off enough by that kind of forced leverage, they may decide it's time for the screwdriver to turn.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2015, @05:41AM
That must be one very tight screw. Have they tried WD40?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 19 2015, @11:17AM
They're trying to use a slot american screwdriver or maybe a Canadian Robertson in a philips head metric, it's going to be difficult. Just use a hammer, what could possibly go wrong?