Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 27 - December 3 [POLITICS]

Diet enacts NSC law

The House of Councilors on November 27 approved and enacted a bill to launch a National Security Council with a majority vote of the Liberal Democratic, Komei, Democratic, Your, and Japan Restoration parties. The Japanese Communist, Social Democratic, and People’s Life parties voted against it.

Prior to the vote, JCP representative Inoue Satoshi pointed out that the bill is intended to promote intelligence sharing with the United States while hiding all kinds of information from public purview and threatening citizens with punishment with the introduction of a secrets protection law.

Citing the Abe Cabinet’s move to enable Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, Inoue stressed that the bill is “nothing but the arrangement of a foundation to turn Japan into a war-fighting nation.”

In addition to the many loopholes already in effect on the three principles banning arms exports, the government is going forward with the joint development of weapons and creation of an organization to support defense technology development modeled after the DAPRA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) of the U.S. government.

Inoue criticized the government’s attempt to expand the Self-Defense Forces’ base in Djibouti and build more SDF facilities overseas as going against the international current.