It has surfaced that 25 people refused to undergo a qualification check for handling state secrets — a procedure provided for by the state secrets law, which has just marked the first year since its enforcement in 2014. The check is highly intrusive; it has been criticized for infringing on the privacy of those who are investigated. The Diet should discuss whether the related provision is appropriate and make changes if necessary.

Under the law, only people who have passed the background check can handle information classified as state secrets. While most are government workers, others are employees of private-sector firms, mostly in the defense industry. Although the law went into effect in December 2014, a year after its enactment, such checks were not immediately carried out because the number of people who must be subjected to the procedure was so large. As a result, a temporary measure was adopted that allowed people who used to handle government secrets before the enforcement of the new law to continue as before. But on Dec. 1, the strict application of the law set in, requiring that only those who passed the check handle state secrets.

The law requires the head of a relevant government organization to evaluate its workers and private-sector people who are to handle state secrets for the purpose of making sure they will reliably handle classified information. The evaluation check is needed at 19 ministries and agencies, including the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Cabinet secretariat, the National Security Council, the National Police Agency and the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which are authorized to classify information in 55 categories in the areas of defense, diplomacy, counter-intelligence and counterterrorism.