Secret Protection Act

It does protect secret information of the government, while it may restrict human rights, including right of knowledge or freedom of speech. Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, considers submitting Secret Protection Act to next session of the National Diet this fall. Even though the officials stress the necessity of maintaining alliance with the United States and other nations by strictly controlling governmental information, the main purpose of the government is to strengthen administrative power over their people. There will be a little effect of protecting security information from leaking.

The act is going to lay stricter penalties for workers in national public sectors, who leak classified information. Based on the report of a study group on this issue in 2011, the act will pose ten years prison at most on the leak of “special secret” on defense, diplomacy or public safety. Targets of the legislation are not only bureaucrats, but also legislators including vice ministers and advisors to Prime Minister. Coping with Japanese version of National Security Conference, Secret Protection Act is supposed to deter leakages of important information to other countries.

With this kind of legislation, news scoops about scandals or briberies of governmental officials will eventually be reduced, because access to governmental person will be strictly limited. Although the law will limit the penalty applied only to “socially unacceptable activities,” law enforcement is easily exercised in arbitral ways.

It is not the time when leak of governmental information is done between a young newspaper writer and “deep throat” covered by darkness of the night. Communication channel is too complicated for the government to deal with.

Before worrying about colleague’s leakage to media, the administrative leaders need to tighten the security of information. In fact, the Ministry of Environment unconsciously leaked their secret information on the negotiation over a treaty of limiting mercury trade through google mail sharing service. Considering consecutive hacking incidents happening in the ministries, the government needs to enhance its cyber security, for not being easily accessed to its “important secrets.”

For allied countries, mainly for the United States, the weakness of information control would actually be a great anxiety for its world strategy. However, U.S. needs to understand that Secret Protection Act has little things to do with protecting security information. The greater cause of the legislation is an attempt of the government to enhance its ruling power over ordinary people in traditional way.