The Japanese State Secrets Law
by Billy Fujii

Tanabe Akihiro, a carpenter, moves away from the Fukushima area settling in the fifty-kilometer radius of the nuclear power plant with his family of four. Ten years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, due to the exposure of radiation, his eldest son of two is showing a conspicuous development of thyroid cancer as well as his wife's burgeoning breast cancer. One summer night at a bar, he begins to talk to a stranger who turns out to be a doctor helping out the Fukushima children. Doctor Yoshi, slightly drunk, informs Akihiro about the confidential government data which displays the certain regions where cancer is prevalent. Hearing this, Akihiro disseminates this 'state secret' as a documentary to the New York Times; however, he and the doctor are immediately arrested, while Tanabe's family undergoes an investigation all warranted by Japan's state secrets law.

Do you think this story was just made-up? Believe it or not, it is starting to become a harsh reality in the near future of Japan.

Japan, known as the heaven for spies, recently established the State Secrets Law under the pressure from "Washington to protect state secrets - including intelligence shared by the US", especially at a time of regional tensions between China and Korea. Likewise, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated, "The bill was necessary for Japan to cooperate more closely on security with allies such as the United States by preventing leaks of sensitive information." The law was erected with the intent to strengthen the punishment for individuals who disclose information that threatens national security. This law enables the government to indefinitely keep sensitive data away from the public and classify any information as a state secret that relates to the following: defense, diplomacy, counter-terrorism, and counter-espionage. With Wikileaks along with Edward Snowden, Japan seeks to obstruct those who leak the country's confidential information to the public. Edward Snowden played a significant role in leaking NSA's classified information to the public, becoming a major political traitor to the United States. His motivation arose from seeing that the NSA violated many of the human rights that were supposed to be protected according to the Constitution. His main objective was to question the appropriateness of the government concealing data from the public. Without further discussion, Japan aspires to make certain that there is no leakage of the state secrets. The critics of this new law are mainly concerned with its ambiguity, its violation of basic human rights, and its threat to democracy.

Critics of the new legislation pointed out the equivocal terms used in the law such as "reference to 'other types of information' that will be classified as protected, and making it illegal for journalists to use 'inappropriate methods' would give the government wide-ranging power in controlling the media." What constitutes a state secret? What are the other types of information? What are the inappropriate methods? The Japan Times commented that there was an apparent ambiguity in many articles in the bill. The Japanese lawyer association, Nichiberen, also conveyed that the range of what constitutes a state secret is too wide and perplexing. How would a citizen or a journalist know what subjects are considered state secrets? How would a citizen or a journalist know what they are allowed to ask or say? Mizuho Fukushima, an opposition Member of Parliament said, "There are few specifics in the law, which means it can be used to hide whatever the government wishes to keep away from public scrutiny." The lack of detail creates an irresolute ambience and a feeling of uncertainty among the citizens. Like Bloomberg says, "Ambiguity reigns."

The state secrets law infringes upon the right to information. Some critics perceived the law as a marking of return to the days of prewar and wartime Japanese militarism, when the government enacted the Peace Preservation Act allowing political opponents to be arrested and imprisoned. Japan's state secrets law is similar to the prewar military secrets-protection law that allowed Japan to "vaguely categorize secrets and ban access to military-related areas, and punish the formation of "spy groups" (political enemies).