Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference on Dec. 9 — three days after his Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito enacted the state secrets law in the Upper House's plenary session (night of Dec. 6) — that he will explain in detail the law in order to assuage people's fears about it. The law is to be promulgated today.

He also said that the scope of secrets will not go beyond that currently defined by the government and that the law will never threaten people's ordinary lives.

Abe must have been taken aback by the public's strong criticism of the law. According to a Kyodo News poll, 54.1 percent of respondents said the law should be revised in the next ordinary Diet session in 2014, 28.2 percent said it should be scrapped completely, and 70.8 percent felt uneasy about the law.