No. 1418 Don’t Learn, Don’t Look at and Don’t Talk
This year commemorates the 100th year of implementation of the Maintenance of the Public Order Act, a law which harshly and rampantly tormented people before and during WWII. After Japan’s defeat in the war, the notorious law was abolished. But today a similar legal device has begun to resurface in the society in the name of an espionage prevention law.
NEVER ALLOW RESUBMISSION OF ESPIONAGE PREVENTION BILL!
The maximum penalty lies in death as for the said Maintenance of the Public Order Act. Even after WWII, a bill was presented for parliamentary debates to punish ‘treason’ against the state, in which death penalty or life imprisonment is provided. It was the ‘espionage prevention bill’, which was submitted to the Diet in June 1985 by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as a lawmaker-initiated bill.
International Federation for Victory over Communism secretly works
In 1957 the then-Prime Minister Kishi Shinsuke had pledged President of the United States to make a law which would prohibit intelligence activities, but the premier resigned amid the 1960 massive protests of people. In 1978 the then-Premier Fukuda Takeo replied during the parliamentary debates in a way of questioning whether ‘it is good to leave intact a situation called a heaven for spies.’ Triggered by the statement, the International Federation for Victory over Communism, an organization affiliated to the Unification Church, began to work covertly.
Mr. Kishi and his daughter’s husband, former Foreign Minister Abe Shintaro, had been fervent in enacting an anti-espionage law, and the grandson of the former, Abe Shinzo, successfully advanced his family’s legacy. In 2013 during Abe’s second-round administration a bill for Protection of Specially Designated Secrets was submitted to the extraordinary session of parliament to be enacted with force of the ruling bloc, a coalition government of the LDP and the Komeito.
The law prohibits conveying and announcing publicly specially designated secrets, and, if one violates, he/she shall be imposed on maximumly 10-year imprisonment. Crimes of conspiracy were legislated in 2017. In 2022 the Economic Security Promotion Act passed the parliament, a law to regard economic activities and scientific researches as a core of national security. Last year the Act on the Protection and Utilization of Critical Economic Security Information passed the ordinary session of the Diet. It is a law to expand the Economic Security Promotion Act into the economic domain.
These laws are different from a law on espionage
A series of laws on the protection of secrets work in a limited way and they are different from an anti-espionage law, in which assumed is prosecution of espionage activities.
Chairman Takaichi Sanae, the Investigation Council for Measures to Counter Crimes on Public Order, Terrorism and Cyber Attacks of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), proposed on May 20 to Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru to study on legislation of an anti-espionage law. She described in the LDP’s pledges for the Upper House election held in July that ‘in order to sustain national security capabilities parallel with those of foreign countries, the government will pursue its intelligence strategy and introduce an anti-espionage law.’
The opposition parties, too
As for legislation of an anti-espionage law, opposition parties have been engaged, too. During the recent Upper House election campaigns, the Democratic Party for the People (=Kokumin) pledged to ‘enact an anti-espionage law’, the Japan Innovation Party (=Nippon-Ishin) vowed to ‘legislate an espionage prevention law similar to those of foreign countries and strengthen intelligence security capabilities’, and the Conservative Party of Japan (=Nippon Hoshu) provided ‘enactment of an anti-espionage law, establishment of professional intelligence machinery and legislative arrangements.’
The Sansei-to (=the Party of Do It Yourself), too, pledged that ‘through legislation of a Japanese version of anti-espionage law, the national authority will speedily prevent and deter aggressive acts and thefts of sensitive information by adversary forces from a viewpoint of economic security.’ The party has won 12 seats in the Upper House, gaining the independent right of submission of a bill. It seeks for chances to present a bill during the coming extraordinary session of the Diet.
The name of an anti-espionage law reminds us of the dark days in history under the Maintenance of Pubic Order Act - a society in which a doctrine, ‘Don’t learn, don’t look at and don’t talk’, prevails. Such a society must not emerge again. For us requested are firm determination and brave struggles.
今年は戦前・戦中に猛威を振るった弾圧法・治安維持法制定から１００年。敗戦で希代の悪法は廃止されたが、治安維持法体制は、「スパイ防止法」の名で、現代社会に復活しようと蠢(うごめ)いている。
治安維持法の最高刑は「死刑」。戦後も国家への「反逆」を死刑または無期懲役で罰する法案が国会提出されている。自民党が１９８５年６月、議員立法で衆議院に提出した「スパイ防止法案」だ。
国際勝共連合蠢く
岸信介首相は１９５７年、米大統領にスパイ防止法を約束したが、60年安保で退陣した。１９７８年の福田赳夫首相答弁「スパイ天国といわれる状態を放置してていいのか」を契機に蠢き始めたのが統一教会の関連団体・国際勝共連合だ。
岸氏と娘婿の安倍晋太郎元外相が意欲を示したスパイ防止法は、孫の安倍晋三氏が大きく「前進」させた。第二次安倍政権は２０１３年の臨時国会に「特定秘密保護法案」を提出、自公が強行した。
秘密保護法は、特定秘密を伝え、公表を禁止、違反者は最高10年の懲役。16年に共謀罪を強行。22 年は、経済活動と科学技術研究を国家安全保障の柱にする経済安全保障法、昨年の通常国会で、経済分野に秘密保護を拡大する経済秘密保護法が成立した。
「スパイ法」と違う
一連の秘密保護法制は限定的で、包括的なスパイ行為摘発を想定した「スパイ防止法」とは違う。
自民党「治安・テロ・サイバー犯罪対策調査会」の高市早苗会長は５月20日、石破茂総裁にスパイ防止法制定の検討を提言、参院選公約に「諸外国と同レベルの安全保障を確保するため、国家情報戦略やスパイ防止法の導入に向けて検討を進める」と明記した。
野党各党にも動き
スパイ防止法制定は野党も動く。参院選で国民民主党は「スパイ防止法制定」、日本維新の会も「諸外国並のスパイ防止法を制定し情報安全保障を強化」、日本保守党は「スパイ防止法制定、諜報専門機関の設置及び関連法整備」と公約。
参政党も「日本版『スパイ防止法』等の制定で、経済安全保障などの観点から外国勢力による日本に対する侵略的な行為や機微情報の盗取などを機動的に防止・制圧する」と公約。参政党は12議席を獲得、参院で単独法案提出権を得て、秋の臨時国会に法案提出を狙っている。
「スパイ防止」という言葉に治安維持法下の暗黒の歴史を思い、「知るな、見るな、話すな」の社会を再来させない決意と闘いが求めらる。
英訳版↓
No. 1418 Don’t Learn, Don’t Look at and Don’t Talk
This year commemorates the 100th year of implementation of the Maintenance of the Public Order Act, a law which harshly and rampantly tormented people before and during WWII. After Japan’s defeat in the war, the notorious law was abolished. But today a similar legal device has begun to resurface in the society in the name of an espionage prevention law.
NEVER ALLOW RESUBMISSION OF ESPIONAGE PREVENTION BILL!
The maximum penalty lies in death as for the said Maintenance of the Public Order Act. Even after WWII, a bill was presented for parliamentary debates to punish ‘treason’ against the state, in which death penalty or life imprisonment is provided. It was the ‘espionage prevention bill’, which was submitted to the Diet in June 1985 by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as a lawmaker-initiated bill.
International Federation for Victory over Communism secretly works
In 1957 the then-Prime Minister Kishi Shinsuke had pledged President of the United States to make a law which would prohibit intelligence activities, but the premier resigned amid the 1960 massive protests of people. In 1978 the then-Premier Fukuda Takeo replied during the parliamentary debates in a way of questioning whether ‘it is good to leave intact a situation called a heaven for spies.’ Triggered by the statement, the International Federation for Victory over Communism, an organization affiliated to the Unification Church, began to work covertly.
Mr. Kishi and his daughter’s husband, former Foreign Minister Abe Shintaro, had been fervent in enacting an anti-espionage law, and the grandson of the former, Abe Shinzo, successfully advanced his family’s legacy. In 2013 during Abe’s second-round administration a bill for Protection of Specially Designated Secrets was submitted to the extraordinary session of parliament to be enacted with force of the ruling bloc, a coalition government of the LDP and the Komeito.
The law prohibits conveying and announcing publicly specially designated secrets, and, if one violates, he/she shall be imposed on maximumly 10-year imprisonment. Crimes of conspiracy were legislated in 2017. In 2022 the Economic Security Promotion Act passed the parliament, a law to regard economic activities and scientific researches as a core of national security. Last year the Act on the Protection and Utilization of Critical Economic Security Information passed the ordinary session of the Diet. It is a law to expand the Economic Security Promotion Act into the economic domain.
These laws are different from a law on espionage
A series of laws on the protection of secrets work in a limited way and they are different from an anti-espionage law, in which assumed is prosecution of espionage activities.
Chairman Takaichi Sanae, the Investigation Council for Measures to Counter Crimes on Public Order, Terrorism and Cyber Attacks of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), proposed on May 20 to Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru to study on legislation of an anti-espionage law. She described in the LDP’s pledges for the Upper House election held in July that ‘in order to sustain national security capabilities parallel with those of foreign countries, the government will pursue its intelligence strategy and introduce an anti-espionage law.’
The opposition parties, too
As for legislation of an anti-espionage law, opposition parties have been engaged, too. During the recent Upper House election campaigns, the Democratic Party for the People (=Kokumin) pledged to ‘enact an anti-espionage law’, the Japan Innovation Party (=Nippon-Ishin) vowed to ‘legislate an espionage prevention law similar to those of foreign countries and strengthen intelligence security capabilities’, and the Conservative Party of Japan (=Nippon Hoshu) provided ‘enactment of an anti-espionage law, establishment of professional intelligence machinery and legislative arrangements.’
The Sansei-to (=the Party of Do It Yourself), too, pledged that ‘through legislation of a Japanese version of anti-espionage law, the national authority will speedily prevent and deter aggressive acts and thefts of sensitive information by adversary forces from a viewpoint of economic security.’ The party has won 12 seats in the Upper House, gaining the independent right of submission of a bill. It seeks for chances to present a bill during the coming extraordinary session of the Diet.
The name of an anti-espionage law reminds us of the dark days in history under the Maintenance of Pubic Order Act - a society in which a doctrine, ‘Don’t learn, don’t look at and don’t talk’, prevails. Such a society must not emerge again. For us requested are firm determination and brave struggles.
September 10, 2025