The Subversive Activities Prevention Act provides for necessary restrictive measures against organizations that have committed violent subversive activities, such as insurrection, disturbance, or homicide, with the aim of creating civil commotion or achieving their own political purposes, where such activities posed a serious threat to the peaceful lives of citizens. The Act also provides a means to complement the usually applicable punitive provisions regarding such activities to help ensure public safety in Japan.
This Act provides that, if an organization that has committed violent subversive activities is determined to pose a threat, such as there is a clear danger of its committing such activities again, the organization will have its activities under restriction or be disbanded. It also provides for additional or stricter punishments for organizations that have committed violent subversive activities, to allow for proper punishments for violent subversive activities that might not be covered by the provisions of the Criminal Code or other laws, or that could only be dealt with by a lenient punishment. (Enacted in 1952)