Japanʼs national Diet adopted a comprehensive state secrecy law on December 6, 2013.1 Expanded state secrecy power is emblematic of the broad political agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his allies.

The "Specially Designated Secrets Protection Law"1 poses a severe threat to news reporting and press freedom in Japan. Government officials have not shied away from intimidating reporters in the past. ..............

The last major change to Japan’s secrecy law was made in 2001 when the Diet revised the Self-Defense Forces Law (jietai-ho) to include a new provision protecting information designated as a “defense secret” (boei himitsu).1 During the extraordinary Diet session that opens on October 15, the Abe administration plans to submit a “Designated Secrets Protection” bill (tokutei himitsu hogo hoan) to the Diet with the goal of strengthening Japan’s secrecy regime.2

On 13 December 2001, a three-judge panel of Nagoya District Court rendered the first court decision appying Japan's new information disclosure law.

Is it time to bring Japan’s postwar experiment in liberal democracy to an end? Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and his followers seem to think so. In April 2012, the LDP published a clear blueprint for constitutional revision that would go a long way toward achieving this goal. ..........