Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 9 - 15 [POLITICS]

NSC and secrets protection bills to turn Japan into a war-fighting nation

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s cabinet plans to submit a bill to set up a National Security Council (NSC) and a secrets protection bill at the extraordinary Diet session starting on October 15. It is attempting to form a special committee to discuss the two bills in order to rush through their enactment.

The bill to establish a Japanese-version of the U.S. National Security Council, if passed, will enable the prime minister to take more flexible and broad-ranging actions in diplomatic and security matters. It proposes to install a four ministers’ consultative grouping (prime minister, chief-cabinet secretary, foreign and defense ministers) and a national security bureau in the prime minister’s office to consolidate all necessary information from government ministries and agencies.

The secrets protection bill is designed to ban the leaking of information designated as “special secrecy” by administrative organ heads and will impose a 10-year maximum sentence on public employees who violate the regulation. Citizens and media reporters can be punished by any attempt to obtain such information.

As the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, and the Japan P.E.N. Club are raising voices of protest against the bill, it is aimed at hiding information the government does not want the public to gain access to.

Prime Minister Abe is also attempting to revise the government interpretation of constitutional provisions in order to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense so that the nation can take part in wars abroad with the Unites States. His move to get the two bills enacted at the upcoming Diet session is instrumental in attaining this objective.

The move to keep the public in the dark and to install the NSC as a control tower in wars with the U.S. by means of the two proposed bills, the move will turn Japan into a war fighting nation.

Past related article:
> Bill to protect secret information violates people’s right to know (September 6, 2013)