Japan Press Weekly

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2025 May 14 - 20 [POLITICS]

Cyber defense bill becomes law, allowing gov’t to collect information without consent

An active cyber defense bill became law on May 16 at the House of Councilors plenary session by a majority vote while the Japanese Communist Party and the “Reiwa” party voted against the bill.

JCP lawmaker Inoue Satoshi in the Diet debate criticized the bill. He said it infringes upon the “secrecy of communications” guaranteed under the Constitution.

The new law allows the government to collect and use personal information at its convenience without users’ consent, which he said is absolutely unacceptable.

With the new law, the government can use communications information by concluding agreements with key infrastructure providers and private-sector operators. Inoue said, “This means communications information can be obtained by the government without consent.”

Inoue pointed out that under the new law, communications information can be provided to the National Police Agency and prefectural police without a warrant, which violates the “warrant principle” in Article 35 of the Constitution which stipulates, “Each search or seizure shall be made upon separate warrants issued by a competent judicial officer.”

He also pointed out that the new law enables the Self-Defense Forces to infiltrate the servers of a country with which the U.S. is at war and to disable their equipment even if Japan is not directly attacked. He expressed concern that the other country may perceive this as a threat of preemptive attack by Japan.

Past related article:
> Cyber defense bill allows collection and use of private information without consent [March 27, 2025]