Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet is set to approve a controversial bill Friday to protect state secrets that stops short of fully guaranteeing the public's right to know and freedom of the press.
Critics fear the bill, which would next go to the Diet, gives the government too much power to control access to information.
The bill imposes heavier punishments on leakers of classified information in an attempt to tighten security and thereby satisfy the U.S. and its allies concerned about what they see as destabilizing factors in Asia.