Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 16 - 22 [POLITICS]

Abe gov’t sets up special committee to hastily discuss NSC and secrets protection bills

The House of Representatives at its plenary session on October 17 approved the establishment of a special committee on national security with the majority vote of the Liberal Democratic, Komei, Democratic, Your, and Japan Restoration parties.

The Japanese Communist, People’s Life, and Social Democratic parties voted against.

The Abe administration intends to bulldoze through two bills to create a Japanese version of the National Security Council and protect secret information with hasty discussions in the committee.

At a Lower House Steering Committee meeting held prior to the House plenary session, JCP representative Sasaki Kensho pointed out that it is outrageous to set up a special committee in order to discuss the NSC bill, which had been submitted to the last Diet session where it had already decided to discuss the bill in the House standing committee on Cabinet.

He also criticized the ruling party for ignoring opposition parties’ demand to establish a special committee to examine issues related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact.