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On December 4, a Joint Meeting of the Committees on Fundamental National Policy in both Houses of the Diet was convened after an 8 month hiatus, and DPJ President Banri Kaieda participated in his second Prime Minister’s question time.
Kaieda pointed out that the ruling parties had repeatedly engaged in strong-armed Diet steering tactics in both Houses of the Diet with regard to the legislative proposal for the protection of special secrets, and commented, “It’s clearly unreasonable to try to wrap up this legislation at all costs by December 6th. Prime Minister Abe has stated repeatedly, ‘We must discuss this matter thoroughly,’ but in fact [the ruling parties’] desire to finalize this legislation by whatever means by the end of this Diet session has been evident. If the Prime Minister were to just make a comment to the effect that he wants to take time to discuss this issue in order to assuage the anxieties and doubts felt by the public, then that movement would come to an end.”
In response, Prime Minister Abe stated, “I believe that we have achieved a great success in holding discussions regarding revisions between the ruling and opposition parties, and implementing revisions. Following this, I would like the legislation to be judged in good conscience in the Diet and in committee, with members taking responsible decisions when the time comes for such decisions to be made.”
The Prime Minister explained his intention of establishing two entities, an advisory committee information control, made up of intellectuals and an oversight committee made up of officials responsible for dealing with information at various government bodies. Abe had first referred to these two entities in public in a session of the Special Committee held that morning in the House of Councillors. Kaieda said, “If the Prime Minister has just put together a committee as he always does, by choosing his cronies, who will simply do his bidding, then there is no way in the world that the advisory committee will be able to function as a check.” He added, “The oversight committee is to be composed of vice-ministerial ranking officials, so here we have bureaucrats popping up yet again. Listening to the Prime Minister’s response, I felt convinced that this special secrets protection legislation is a legislation produced by bureaucrats for bureaucrats in order to conceal bureaucrats’ secrets.” Kaieda concluded his speech by saying, “This is after all an extremely controversial piece of legislation, so I would like you to listen closely to public opinion, to pay close attention to the public, and stop thinking of railroading it through the Diet in order to get things over with during the current session.”
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