Japan Diet Begins Substantive Debate on Intelligence Bill

Tokyo, April 10 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, began substantive deliberations Friday on a bill to establish a national intelligence council aimed at enhancing the government’s intelligence capabilities. At the day’s meeting of the Cabinet Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki said that an agency that would serve as the secretariat of the proposed council is “expected to take effective measures against foreign influence operations.” It is “urgent” to take measures against such activities, including the spread of false information, because they are “a security threat and shake the foundations of democracy,” Ozaki emphasized. Yuichi Goto of the main opposition Centrist Reform Alliance requested that the bill stipulate the protection of privacy, including personal information. In response, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said, “Information will be collected in accordance with the law on the protection of personal information, and we do not see the need to set out separate provisions.” Also, Goto sought an explanation about the scope of “emergency situations” that the bill designates as subject to investigation and deliberation by the national intelligence council. A councillor at the Cabinet Secretariat said the scope could cover not only large-scale natural disasters and the evacuation of Japanese nationals during armed conflicts overseas, but also sharp rises in prices and interest rates. The bill calls for establishing the council and the agency that would serve as its secretariat, upgraded from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. The council is planned to be chaired by the prime minister. The council will determine basic policies for addressing foreign espionage activities and other issues with materials and information provided from each government ministry and agency. The government and the ruling bloc aim to enact the bill during the current Diet session and set up the organizations in July. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]