Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2011 February 16 - 22 TOP3 [SCANDAL]

Foreign Ministry spied on Dietmen in National Diet Library

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had assigned an official to the National Diet Library (NDL) to watch and report on what parliamentarians were looking at. This fact came out in a document the ministry released on February 18.

This is a serious problem in regard to the separation of powers (legislative, administrative, and judicial) on the grounds that an administrative body had spied on legislators in the NDL, a legislative body.

The NDL on the same day submitted a written apology and indicated its willingness to raise a protest against the Foreign Ministry and carry out investigations.

The released document dated January 7, 1998 shows a brief memo that states, “A Japanese Communist Party Dietmember is searching for what Ms. Albright (U.S. state secretary at that time) said in a public hearing on October 7, 1997.” The ministry seemed to especially observe JCP library searches.

JCP Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo, who was a target of the spying operation, commented on this revelation, “Dietmembers conduct research based on administrative investigation rights. The Foreign Ministry, an administrative organ, had gathered information through its official in the NDL, a legislative organ. This amounts to espionage on domestic legislators.”