Japan PM Stresses Privacy Protection in Intelligence Bill Debate

Tokyo, May 8 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday emphasized the importance of privacy protection during parliamentary discussions on a government bill to set up a national intelligence council aimed at enhancing the country’s intelligence capabilities. On medium- to long-term strategies for the government’s intelligence activities, Takaichi told a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, “We will consider measures to ensure that the government does not collect or provide information in ways that unnecessarily infringe on personal data or privacy.” The bill, which last month cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, entered deliberations in the Upper House, with the prime minister attending the plenary meeting in which the bill’s purpose was explained and a question-and-answer session was held. Takaichi also said that the bill would neither create new investigative powers to make it easier to collect information from people nor expand existing powers. Elsewhere in the meeting, Makiko Dogomi, an Upper House lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party for the People, underlined the importance of securing personnel with know-how on artificial intelligence and economic security at a national intelligence bureau that would serve as the council’s secretariat. “Considering the sophistication of intelligence operations, securing personnel with expertise in AI and cybersecurity is a major challenge,” Takaichi said, indicating plans to promote public-private exchanges and recruit experienced workers. Along with calling for the creation of a national intelligence council to be chaired by the prime minister, the bill seeks the establishment of a national intelligence bureau through the reorganization of the current Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. The Takaichi administration positions the bill’s enactment as a first step toward enacting anti-espionage legislation and creating an external intelligence agency. The government and the ruling bloc aim to enact the intelligence council bill during the current Diet session, which will run through July. The bill was approved in the Lower House by a majority vote with support also from opposition parties including the DPFP. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]