Japan Press Weekly

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2014 June 11 - 17 [POLITICS]

Ruling bloc aims to set up Diet panel to approve arbitrary concealment of state information

Ahead of the enforcement of the State Secrets Protection Law, Japan’s ruling coalition is trying to set up an organization in the Diet to “monitor” the government’s operation of state secrets.

In December, the governing Liberal Democratic and Komei parties forcibly enacted the state secrecy law in defiance of strong public opposition. The act is to come into effect within a year of its enactment.

The law authorizes chairs of state organizations to designate any administrative information as state secrets and not to open them to the general public.

At the end of May, the ruling bloc submitted to the Diet a bill to establish a permanent Diet organ called the “information monitoring panel”. They are aiming to railroad through the contentious measure within the current Diet session to be closed on June 22.

The ruling parties insist that the panel is necessary to monitor the operation of state secrets specified as such by the administration.

According to the draft law, the information monitoring panel is to give “advice” to the government on the use of specific secrets as well as to “ask” it to provide certain state secrets to the Diet. However, the government is not required to follow such recommendations.

The secrecy act allows cabinet ministers to reject requests for the disclosure of national secrets when they judge that the disclosure may seriously affect the state’s security. Even if the panel issues a recommendation, it is up to the government’s judgment whether to uncover those secrets. The Diet organ will be of no use in preventing authorities from covering up state information arbitrarily.

The primary task of the Diet, the highest organ of state power, is to monitor the government. The Japanese Constitution gives Diet members the right to examine matters of government and to speak freely in the chambers, as well as providing guarantees to open Diet sessions to the public. Lawmakers have the responsibility to expose illegal actions of the administration such as the Japan-U.S. secret pacts on nuclear weapons by using their constitutional right.

The need now is not to set up such an organ, but to abrogate the secrecy act.

Past related articles:
> Victim of wartime oppressive act calls for repealing State Secrecy Law [April 17, 2014]
> Freelance journalists take state secrecy law to court [March 29, 2014]