Gov’t wants to use leaked Senkaku footage to restrict public right to know

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Gov’t wants to use leaked Senkaku footage to restrict public right to know

The government is seeking to enact a “law to protect secrecy” by taking advantage of the leaked video footage showing the collision of a Chinese fishing boat with Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats off the coast of the Senkaku Islands.

Using the prevention of military information leakage as an excuse, the new law will undermine the people’s right to know and will breach Article 21 of the Constitution guaranteeing the right to freedom of speech, the press, and expression.

On November 8, Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku Yoshito at a Lower House Budget Committee meeting said that he will make efforts to immediately consider a “law to protect secrecy” and push for its enactment.

Sengoku made this remark in response to Ishiba Shigeru, Policy Research Council chair of the Liberal Democratic Party who said, “The Japan-U.S. alliance is not viable without the protection of confidential matters. We must maintain the U.S. trust.”

A “law to protect secrecy” had been considered throughout the tenure of the former LDP-Komei government. Taking the leaked footage as an opportunity, the Democratic Party is likely to work with the LDP to enact a new law.

In order to accelerate Japan-U.S. military integration, the U.S. administration has demanded that Japan enact a “law to protect secrecy” so that confidential U.S. military information can be fully shared with Japan.

Reportedly, Japanese Coast Guard officers on board shot the footage of the collision on video on September 7. Shorter-version video clips were somehow leaked on the Internet on the night of November 4. The original footage has been in storage at the Naha District Prosecutors’ Office, and the Ishigaki Coast Guard Office and the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office have locked the copies up in a safe, respectively.

The issue of the video leakage is a matter of responsibility that the government must fulfill in its information management. The need now is for the government to determine the facts, not curb the people’s right to know.

- Akahata, November 9, 2010