Japan's Secrecy Bill

Japan's Upper House Special 

Committee on National

Security Just Passed the 

State Secrecy Protection 

Law; It Now Goes to the 

Floor

ex-SKF,

4 December, 2013

The bill no one in the ruling coalition or in the opposition seems to have a firm grasp of to ask intelligent questions and give intelligent answers has just passed the Committee vote by the majority (4:08PM, December 5, 2013).

According to the party newspaper of Japanese Communist Party (tweet), an LDP member of the Committee submitted a motion to stop the discussion, and the Committee chairman declared, in the middle of discussion, that there be a vote. The majority voted for the bill, and the Committee was adjourned in confusion.

There is no filibuster in Japan's Upper House. The US Senate had one until very recently when Dirty Harry effectively ditched this long tradition of more than 200 years.

The bill immediately goes to the Upper House session. LDP and the coalition partner Komei Party seem to want to pass the bill within today, the last day of the Diet session.

Rushing the bill full of holes doesn't make sense politically for the ruling coalition. Frogs are to be boiled slowly.

Citizens have been gathering around the National Diet building, and I see more net citizens tweeting that they are on their way to the Diet building, even if that means they are "terrorists" (according to LDP's Ishiba) shouting and demonstrating against the government.

Citizens report a sudden increase of the police in the area surrounding the Diet building.

Japanese Communist Party wants to submit the parliamentary motion of non-confidence against the cabinet in the Lower House, which may result in the resignation of the cabinet and the Lower House election. But it needs 50 members of the Lower House to submit the motion. There are only 8 Representatives from Communist Party, and unless the second largest party in the Lower House (Democratic Party of Japan, 57 Representatives) joins Communist Party, that is not going to happen.

NHK says it didn't broadcast the committee proceedings, because there was very little interest from Japanese citizens.

One logic repeated by LDP members of the Diet is: "Since we won the election, we have the mandate. We can do whatever we want, and that's what the voters want us to do."

Does it sound familiar?

By the way, US Vice President Joe Biden (expert on foreign relations and national security, said the Japanese media) was in Japan on December 3rd. I'm sure he instructed Abe very well.

Protesters form human chain around Diet building as Japan’s ruling bloc pushes ‘state secrets’ bill

Japan Daily Press,

5 December, 2013

Thousands of people headed to the Diet building on Wednesday to form a human chain and protest against the impending state secrets bill that Japan’s ruling bloc is pushing in the Upper House. The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito are looking at having the bill approved before the House of Councillors as early as Thursday, before the current session ends on December 6.

The protest organizers, citizens group “Himitsu hogoho haian e! Jikko iinkai” (Executive committee for the rejection of the secrets protection bill), said that there were around 6,000 people who participated in Wednesday’s action, with many of them carrying placards saying, “Stop the secrets protection bill!” The mostly peaceful protest was punctuated by cries of “We the people are sovereign!” and “We are not terrorists!” 

The bill has received much criticism from the press and media people, as well as human rights groups and ordinary citizens as they feel it violates the right of people to know and the freedom of the press. 

One of the demonstrators feels that this kind of legislation is a form of “government tyranny” while another one, a grandparent of four, says that this bill “must be rejected” for the sake of the future of Japan.

Meanwhile, the ruling bloc came up with last-ditch efforts to get the support of the opposition lawmakers in order for the bill to be passed before Friday. They presented a plan to two opposition parties that will set-up a third-party oversight committee that will monitor which information will be classified and declassified as “state secrets.” 

However, the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, says it will not change its stand on the issue. They are also looking at bringing a censure motion against Masako Mori, state minister in charge of the bill, in order to block the passage of the bill.

Opposition takes final swipe 

at bill

Ruling bloc set to railroad secrets act into law

Japan Times,

4 December, 2013

The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc and the opposition camp faced off again Wednesday over the contentious state secrets bill, even though it appears headed for passage by the Upper House before the Diet session ends Friday.

During the day’s debate between party leaders, LDP Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the bill is vital for national security, while Banri Kaieda, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, attacked the proposed legislation as draconian.

“I can now say with certainty that the bill was created by bureaucrats, for bureaucrats to hide information,” Kaieda said.

Adamant about getting the bill into law, Abe promised that the government will set up an oversight committee to monitor the classification process in an apparent effort to ease public concerns and opposition criticism that the bill would give the government too much power in designating state secrets.

“We will emulate the ISCAP (Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel) in the U.S. and set up a similar oversight body within the Cabinet Office by the time the law takes effect,” Abe told the Upper House special committee on national security. “The entity would be in charge of monitoring the classification and declassification process and how the security clearance is conducted.”

His comments came as the opposition camp, including Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) and Your Party, which agreed to amendments to the bill in the Lower House, are loudly criticizing the lack of an independent classification monitoring process. Nippon Ishin said it might vote against the bill unless Abe provides an ironclad guarantee of the classification panel’s independence.

Abe also said the government will create an independent post to ensure that documents are disposed of properly as well as an information security council where experts would compile a set of rules for classification and declassification.

Yet the opposition lawmakers jeered Abe for failing to guarantee the complete independent nature of the oversight panel. According to his plan, vice ministers would play a central role in the panel, and the chief Cabinet secretary and deputy chief Cabinet secretary would also be members, possibly reducing its independence.

In its last-minute effort to gain support, the ruling bloc met Wednesday evening with Your Party and Nippon Ishin to narrow their differences over the nature of the oversight panel. They were likely to reach an agreement by Thursday.

Despite the intensifying opposition by the minority parties, which are enraged by what they say is the heavy-handed way the ruling bloc is forcing the bill through the Diet, the proposed legislation is set to be passed by Friday.

“There is no possibility (of extending the session),” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters. “I think discussions are about ready to wrap up.”

Meanwhile the showdown between the ruling bloc and the opposition camp over how to steer Diet matters intensified.

Angered by the actions of the ruling parties, the opposition camp except for the Japanese Communist Party boycotted a public hearing on the secrecy bill in Saitama Prefecture. The opposition camp criticized the ruling bloc for forcibly setting the hearing only one day ahead of time and with little consultation.

The opposition camp even tried to delay the public hearing by slowing down the voting process in the Upper House plenary session, but to no avail. The Upper House president, from the LDP, made a motion to recess the plenary session so lawmakers could attend the hearing.

“I cannot help but think that the president of the house, who should be fair to all the parties, made a very unfair decision,” said Kazuya Shinba, head of the DPJ’s Upper House steering committee.

The ruling bloc was expected to reopen the plenary session in the evening after the public hearing, during which it was likely to submit a motion to sack the chairmen of the committee on Cabinet Office matters and the committee on economy, trade and industry, positions held by DPJ lawmakers.

The ruling bloc accused the DPJ chairs of delaying deliberation of a bill to create special economic zones and a bill to amend the anti-monopoly law. The special zone bill is a key component of Abe’s economic policies.