Japan Likely to Enact National Intelligence Council Bill

Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese opposition Democratic Party for the People has decided to vote for a bill to establish a national intelligence council, making it likely to clear parliament during the current session ending in July. The DPFP decision on the council, envisioned in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s national intelligence system reform drive, will likely allow a majority vote for the bill at the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, where the ruling coalition led by Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party is a minority force. At a board meeting Wednesday morning, the Cabinet Committee of the House of Representatives, the LDP-dominated lower chamber, decided to vote on the bill later in the day. Ruling and opposition parties plan to submit a supplementary resolution requiring the government not to collect election-related information that would benefit or disadvantage any specific parties and urging it to report on the council’s activities to the Diet. The DPFP has concluded that consideration for personal information and privacy would be secured to some extent thanks to the supplementary resolution, party sources said. Among other opposition parties, Sanseito, Team Mirai and the Centrist Reform Alliance have not decided whether to vote for the bill. The bill calls for setting up a national intelligence council to be headed by the prime minister and creating a national intelligence bureau by upgrading the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. The government aims to gather information from across government bodies and determine basic policies to deal with espionage activities targeting Japan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]