To the chagrin of many scientists, Japan's Diet adopted a state secrets law on 6 December that threatens imprisonment for those who leak or publish information deemed sensitive by the government. Nobel laureates Toshihide Maskawa, a physicist at Nagoya University, and Hideki Shirakawa, a chemist formerly at the University of Tsukuba, were among 30 scholars who issued a 28 November statement warning that the law threatens constitutional rights, including freedom of the press, of thought and expression, and of academic research. By 6 December, more than 3000 academics had signed on, and the Japan Scientists'Association expressed similar concerns.
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