2026 POLLS: No Deep Debate on Espionage Prevention Law

Tokyo, Feb. 7 (Jiji Press)–There was no deep debate during campaigns for Sunday’s general election on measures to enhance intelligence capabilities, such as an espionage prevention law, although the Liberal Democratic Party and others proposed such steps in their election pledges. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the LDP’s president, made little mention of the issue in stump speeches, even though she listed an enhancement of intelligence capabilities as one of the key reform measures over which she wants to obtain a mandate from voters. Other parties supporting the enhancement made few references to the issue in stump speeches. “We’ve completely changed (policy). We have no choice but to ask for voters’ judgment,” Takaichi stressed in a stump speech in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, on Friday. But she referred only to what she calls “responsible” expansionary fiscal policy. This marked a stark contrast to her press conference held to announce her intent to dissolve the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, for the election. During the conference, she discussed the issue, including a proposal to establish an espionage prevention law. In their agreement to form a coalition between the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party, the two parties said they “will enact legislation related to intelligence and espionage prevention.” Based on this, the LDP added in its election platform that the party “will prepare related legislation such as a foreign agents registration law in order to prevent unjust interference by other countries.” Takaichi, however, only mentioned the proposed establishment of a national intelligence agency a few times in her stump speeches during the official election period. She made no mention of the antiespionage law at all. In its platform, the JIP promised to enact an antiespionage law and strengthen Japan’s intelligence capabilities. The Democratic Party for the People vowed to establish legislation for the development of intelligence systems including espionage prevention. Sanseito pledged to prepare a law against espionage, while the Conservative Party of Japan promised to establish such a law. Still, these parties mainly discussed fiscal policies and issues related to foreign nationals in their stump speeches. Takaichi and other party leaders avoided mentioning the antiespionage legislation because discussions on the topic could cause anxieties among citizens. When the LDP submitted espionage prevention legislation in 1985, a backlash intensified on the ground that such a law would threaten freedom of speech and journalism as well as daily life. The bill was scrapped. The Centrist Reform Alliance, a new party of Lower House lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, has not specified its attitude toward an antiespionage law. Still, Satoshi Honjo, co-chair of the party’s policy research committee, said that “there is a risk of causing serious human rights violations.” The Japanese Communist Party expressed its opposition to such a law in its platform, saying that it would allow the government to “monitor citizens and infringe on basic human rights.” The Social Democratic Party called it the current version of the Peace Preservation Law, which was enacted in 1925 to suppress communist and other movements. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]