The government has not kept any records of internal discussions leading up to its reinterpretation of the Constitution last year to lift the long-held ban on collective self-defense, sources at the Cabinet Legislation Bureau said Monday.
The revelation that a government bureau responsible for the legal consistency of policies and bills does not have such public records means it will be difficult to verify in the future how the government came to change the interpretation, which is central to Japan's security policy, political observers say.
Based on the landmark Cabinet reinterpretation on July 1, 2014, the Cabinet enacted on Sept. 19 the contentious security legislation allowing Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War II.