Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday (local time). [AFP]
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday (local time). [AFP]

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is pushing to expand the legal scope of communications interception from criminal investigations to national security purposes.

The LDP's Intelligence Strategy Headquarters held a meeting Thursday and finalized a draft government proposal to amend the Communications Interception Act to permit wiretapping for national security, according to the Asahi Shimbun and other media. The party has been pursuing a broader effort to strengthen Japan's intelligence-gathering and analysis capabilities.

"Japan has judicial wiretapping for criminal investigations and measures specifically targeting cyberattacks, but no system exists for security purposes," said Takayuki Kobayashi, chair of the LDP's Policy Research Council. He said Japan needed to bolster its intelligence defense capabilities.

The LDP is also pushing to enact a foreign agent registration law that would require entities lobbying on behalf of foreign governments to register, with the aim of deterring espionage activities by foreign powers.

The party is also reviewing the creation of a new espionage statute that would establish criminal penalties for spy activities.

However, the Mainichi Shimbun said criticism could mount that expanding the scope of interception would infringe on the secrecy of communications guaranteed by the constitution.

A mid-ranking LDP lawmaker said that even if the draft proposal included provisions allowing security-related wiretapping, "the hurdles to actually realizing it will be high."

Conscious of criticism that expanding the scope of intelligence gathering could lead to an overconcentration of government power, the LDP also included in its draft proposal a call for oversight of government authority by the National Assembly and an independent watchdog body.

As a first step toward strengthening its intelligence capabilities, the Japanese government plans to soon establish a National Intelligence Agency, which has been described as Japan's version of the CIA.

Japanese police are also conducting research into using AI to monitor social media posts and other online activity to prevent attacks by so-called "lone offenders" — individuals who carry out violent attacks on their own.


spa@heraldcorp.com