Diet Enacts a Bill for National Intelligence Council

The Diet enacted a bill for installing National Intelligence Council in the government at a plenary sittings of the House of Councilors on May 27th. Not only the leading coalition, some opposition parties approved the bill, recognizing necessity to have stricter regulation for securing sensitive information. Leaving concern on violating individual privacy behind, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi looks to have a further intelligence reform, including anti-espionage law. 

The National Intelligence Council will integrate fragmented organizations that deal with intelligence in ministries of foreign affairs or defense and agencies of national police or public security. The prime minister preside the council and the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office will be upgraded to National Intelligence Bureau as a secretary of the council with 700 staffs.

 

In the deliberation of the Diet, the opposition parties expressed a concern that the major intelligence organization in the government may have a great power to oversee private activities of the citizens. Takaichi insisted that it would not violate privacy of the people, because the law would simply coordinate relationship between organizations in the government. Centrist Reform Alliance, Komeito, Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito voted for the bill.

 

Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) opposed the bill submitted by Takaichi government. Instead, the CDPJ sponsored a revised bill that would establish an independent organization which verifies violation of human rights or political fairness in the activities for collecting information. But it was rejected by leading parties. Japan Communist Party and Reiwa Shinsengumi also opposed to the bill brought by the government.

 

Takaichi government hopes to catch up with the Western countries which have advanced system for intelligence. In the United States, Director of National Intelligence oversees the intelligence community and Central Intelligence Agency deals with intelligence of foreign countries. The United Kingdom has Joint Intelligence Committee and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Takaichi hopes Japan to have such intelligence system equivalent to those in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, or “Five Eyes.”

 

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japan Innovation Party agreed last October on enacting an anti-espionage legislation, including laws for registration of foreign agents and disclosure of lobbying, as soon as possible and establishing a foreign intelligence agency by the end of fiscal year 2027. The launching of National Intelligence Council will be the first step for the anti-espionage legislation.

 

There is a concern that the bolstered intelligence capability may violate not only privacy of the citizens, but political activities of the parties. It is possible that the government under strong influence of a leading party exercise its power to regulate specific political activity against the administration. Japan has a history that political activities were integrated by Imperial Rule Assistance Association with dissolution of all the existing parties in the time of the World War II. It is a fundamental requirement for legislating anti-spy law to guarantee freedom of political activity for all the parties.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

Defense Ministers Meet in Seoul

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more