×

News

Should the use of loud speakers for demonstrations held during the Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 6 be regulated?

by Keiichi Nagayama, Staff Writer

The City of Hiroshima is considering an ordinance that would regulate the use of loud speakers to amplify voices during demonstrations in order to ensure a quiet environment for the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony, which takes place in the Peace Memorial Park in Naka Ward on August 6. In a survey of the public conducted last December, about 69 percent of the respondents indicated that amplified voices should be regulated by an ordinance, and the city is now looking toward enforcing such an ordinance at next year’s Peace Memorial Ceremony, which will mark the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing. However, the activist groups and organizations of A-bomb survivors have expressed the concern that an ordinance would restrict the freedom of expression that is guaranteed by the Constitution. Amid calls from the public for broader discussion, the Chugoku Shimbun now examines the circumstances and the issues involved.

• Circumstances

Voices amplified through loud speakers during memorial ceremony

Each year several groups making anti-war and anti-nuclear appeals gather around the A-bomb Dome and engage in rallies or demonstrations. The amplified voices through loud speakers also echo in the venue where the Peace Memorial Ceremony takes place.

In the “August 6 Hiroshima Grand Action,” 300 to 400 people come together annually, and apart from the time for silent prayer, at 8:15 a.m., they raise their voices during the ceremony as they protest the current administration. Terumi Oe, the co-chair of the executive committee, said, “It is natural to raise our voices from the A-bombed city against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is trying to make it possible for our country to wage war by revising the Constitution. Staging a demonstration is an appropriate action to convey our voices to the prime minister.”

Concerning these current circumstances, the city views the actions of the groups as problematic because “They could undercut the purpose of the Peace Memorial Ceremony, which is to console the spirits of the A-bomb victims and pray for lasting peace in the world.” Since 2014, the city has made verbal requests to the groups to turn down the volume on their loud speakers, but they have refused to comply.

After taking up the issue of preserving a quiet setting for the Peace Memorial Ceremony at the general inquiry session of the city assembly last September, the City of Hiroshima began to explore a suitable regulation. While a noise control ordinance exists in Hiroshima Prefecture that regulates the use of loud speakers when such use poses a threat to people’s daily lives, this ordinance is intended to limit the volume on the loud speakers of vehicles driven by right-wing campaigners. In fact, when the prefectural assembly passed this ordinance bill in 1993, it also passed an additional resolution which declared: “The fundamental human rights guaranteed under the Constitution should be respected as much as possible, and the ordinance does not apply to the use of loud speakers that accompany civil rights actions.” Thus the city judged that making use of this ordinance would be difficult. The city also looked into a law which seeks to preserve peace and quiet by prohibiting excessive noise, including in the areas around the Diet building and diplomatic locations, but the Japanese government said that the law “is not applicable in this case.”

• Concerns

Claims that an ordinance would “restrict freedom of expression”

When the City of Hiroshima released the results of its survey of the public on June 24, it also shared the interviews it conducted with major organizations of A-bomb survivors. Among them, four organizations, including the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hiroshima Hidankyo, chaired by Sunao Tsuboi) and the other Hiroshima Hidankyo (chaired by Kunihiko Sakuma), are opposed to any regulations, saying, “An ordinance would lead to restrictions on freedom of expression.”

Takayuki Yamane, the director of the Citizens Activities Promotion Division of the City of Hiroshima, stressed, “Freedom of expression is important, but it is subject to restrictions in relation to the public welfare in order to fulfill the purpose of the ceremony.” He expressed the view that restricting the volume on loud speakers, which could still be used at a specified time and place, was constitutionally permissible.

Akihiro Kawakami, an assistant professor of constitutional law at Hiroshima City University’s Hiroshima Peace Institute, said, “It is still an open question whether or not it’s constitutional to regulate when, where, and how people can express themselves — regardless of what they express — through the use of an ordinance.” He called for careful consideration of this idea, saying, “The use of an ordinance should be limited to cases when there is an imminent situation in which other people’s rights are being violated and no other means are available.”

At a committee meeting of the Hiroshima City Assembly on June 24, doubts were expressed about the contents of the questionnaire. One member of the committee criticized the rationale for the ordinance by saying, “Whether or not demonstrations are noisy should not be the basis of a regulation.” Before the city carries out a survey of participants at the Peace Memorial Ceremony this year, he called for an approach to asking questions that would not be influenced by a subjective posture.

How do other local governments deal with this kind of issue? According to Okinawa Prefecture, during the annual memorial service held in the city of Itoman on June 23, intended to console the souls of those who died there in battle, some people at the venue heckle the proceedings, voicing criticism of the current administration concerning the issue of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa. However, Okinawa Prefecture, which holds the service, manages to handle the situation by having staff members issue cautions, explaining, “A quiet setting is desirable, but we haven’t considered regulating the people there through the use of an ordinance.” The City of Nagasaki, which holds the Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 9, said, “The venue for the ceremony is on a hill. Some people demonstrate at the foot of the hill, but this has no effect on the ceremony itself.”

Main points concerning an ordinance to regulate demonstrations on August 6

Voices of criticism and concern

1. The demonstrations staged around the venue of the Peace Memorial Ceremony are an appropriate action to directly convey a message to the prime minister.

2. Regulating such actions through the use of an ordinance would restrict freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution.

3. Existing laws can deal with the issue even if a new ordinance is not established.

4. The public survey that asked people whether the voices from demonstrations were too loud may be a weak basis for establishing an ordinance.

Views of the City of Hiroshima

1. The current situation in which the sound of demonstrations echoes during the ceremony may undercut the purpose of the ceremony to console the spirits of the A-bomb victims and pray for lasting world peace.

2. We are not seeking to regulate what demonstrators are saying. We think that regulating the volume of the loud speakers, restricting the time and place of their use, is constitutional.

3. We looked at an existing law which seeks to preserve the peace and quiet and a Hiroshima Prefecture noise control ordinance, but we determined that they would not be applicable.

4. We are planning to conduct another survey of participants at this year’s ceremony and are considering what to ask in the survey.

Keywords

Survey by the City of Hiroshima about the Peace Memorial Ceremony
A survey of 3,000 randomly-selected citizens, aged 18 or older, was conducted by the City of Hiroshima last December. Conveying the view that allowing the amplified voices of demonstrations through loud speakers to remain uncontrolled during the ceremony will undercut the purpose of the event, the survey asked the respondents to consider ways to maintain a quieter environment for the ceremony. Of the 1,090 people who had attended the ceremony or watched it on television within the last five years, 60.3 percent of them responded, “I think the voices through the loud speakers from the activist groups are too loud,” and 69.1 percent agreed that “The city should regulate the demonstrations by enacting an ordinance.”

(Originally published on June 26, 2019)

Archives