The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito jointly submitted a bill to the Diet last week to set up a body in the legislature that oversees the government's implementation of the state secrets law. However, the scheme does not give the Diet body effective power to rectify government decisions in classifying state information. Nor does it provide measures to protect officials who blow the whistle on inappropriate designations of state secrets. The Diet should scrutinize the bill's deficiencies so that the proposed body can provide meaningful oversight.
Under the proposal by the ruling parties, the Diet Law would be revised to set up a permanent body in each chamber of the Diet. Each body would comprise eight lawmakers chosen according to the number of seats held by individual parliamentary groups at the house. It would receive a report each year from the government on the designation and declassification of state secrets, and would be able to call on the government to provide the content of a state secret when irregularities are suspected in the classification process.
If the body, in closed-door examination of a secret, finds problems with the way it has been classified, it would be able to recommend that the government change its classification under the law. It can also recommend that the government submit a state secret to a relevant committee of the Diet.