Japan’s House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill to establish a national intelligence committee to bolster the government’s information-gathering capabilities, with enactment expected before the current parliamentary session ends in mid-July, backed by major opposition parties.
The legislation comes as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a national security hawk, aims to centralize the country’s intelligence capabilities under one council in the face of increasingly sophisticated overseas threats, including those related to economic security and foreign espionage.
Backed by the ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as some opposition parties, the bill cleared the powerful lower house a day after a supplementary resolution to protect personal information was adopted.
The additional resolution helped secure support for the bill from the largest opposition party in the lower house, the Centrist Reform Alliance, along with the Democratic Party for the People and two other parties.
With support from opposition parties secured, the bill is expected to pass the House of Councillors, where the governing coalition remains in a minority, and be enacted during the ongoing 150-day Diet session through July 17.
Following enactment, Takaichi’s LDP and JIP aim to launch the committee by summer.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference later Thursday that the bill would contribute to the government’s “right decision-making based on more quality and timely information in the current severe and complex international environment.”
Devised in response to national security concerns, including election interference via social media disinformation, the committee will be chaired by the prime minister and composed of nine other Cabinet members, including the chief Cabinet secretary and foreign minister. It will consolidate a fragmented intelligence apparatus into a central command.
The bill states that the committee’s secretariat will “comprehensively coordinate” intelligence collected by the National Police Agency, the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and other organizations, with the authority to ask them to share information.
During parliamentary debate on the bill, opposition parties voiced concerns about the new body’s potential privacy threats and ability to remain politically neutral.
The nonbinding supplementary resolution was put forward in response to calls for the law to protect private data. It states that information on politicians or electoral activities will not be collected for the purpose of benefiting or disadvantaging specific political entities.
© KYODO
