Japan Press Weekly

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2015 February 4 - 10 TOP3 [POLITICS]

State secrets law acts as obstacle to examination of gov’t conduct in Japanese hostage crisis

The state secrets protection law and the Japanese version of the National Security Council (NSC) have obviously interfered with the investigation into government conduct leading to the brutal killing of two Japanese nationals by the so-called “Islamic State” extremist group.

The secrets protection law and the NSC were created by the Abe administration last year with the aim to concentrate sensitive information in the prime minister’s office. Both are designed to keep government information away from public view.

One of the main focuses in the examination is in regard to the government response from the start of the kidnapping to January 20, the day the Islamic group released an online-video footage threatening to kill the two Japanese hostages.

At the February 5 House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting, the government was repeatedly questioned about whether or not the NSC discussed the hostage crisis at its meeting on January 9 held under the theme of the current situation in the Middle East.

Declining to reply the question, an NSC official said, “I want to withhold going into detail about the NSC discussion.” This official’s attitude caused a disruption in the proceedings of the Upper House committee meeting four times. The official finally said that the agenda for the meeting was selected in preparation for the PM’s visit to the Middle East.

Meanwhile, on February 2 at a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, Foreign Minister Kishida Fumio said that information related to the recent crisis could include information designated as “special secrets”. He, however, added that he cannot say what is determined to be classified information.