On June 15, 1996, the JCLU held a forum entitled "Information Disclosure and the Mass Media" at Kanda Pensˇe Hall in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. The Forum was held immediately after the release of the government midterm report for the enactment of Information Disclosure Law. The government was also holding hearings from civil groups regarding the newly issued report. The Forum attracted more than 200 participants and featured quite an active floor discussion, an indication of the high level of interest in information disclosure among Japanese citizens.
The JCLU published the Model Outline of Information Disclosure Law in December, 1995. At the Forum, JCLU Secretary General Mr. Hiroshi Miyake suggested that the audience use the Model Outline to further advocate information disclosure for the people.
In response to the government's midterm report, the JCLU issued an opinion letter to the Administrative Reform Committee on July 8, 1996. The letter is composed of twenty articles that set out concrete proposals. The Model Outline of December, 1996, in Japanese, is available at the JCLU secretariat for 500 yen per copy.
The following are excerpts from the forum.
Asahi Television newscaster Mr. Seiichi Kanise, quoting that "information is the currency of democracy," predicted that with the advent of the Information Disclosure Law -- which gives freelance journalists and nonfiction writers greater access to government information -- the mass media will in turn have more access to such materials and be able to broaden coverage for the public at large. Mr. Kanise emphasized the importance of this development to Japanese citizens, as such legislation granting freedom of information would enable them to monitor legislative, administrative, and judicial activity.
In addition, offering an example from his own journalistic experience, Mr. Kanise said that the lack of public disclosure in former communist countries caused environmental pollution in the Black Triangle Zone, located on the borders of former East Germany, Poland, and former Czechoslovakia.
Based on his experience as an AP journalist, Mr. Kanise also discussed the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In 1966, when the law was first enacted, many of the public agencies were reluctant and passive in their release of information. However, with the outbreak of the Watergate scandal, the FOIA was revised and strengthened. Mr. Kanise emphasized that the main points of the FOIA are 1) that the government has the burden of proof to demonstrate that disclosure should not be made and 2) that the overriding principle is to have all information made public.
Mr. Toshio Hara, a journalist, spoke of three situations that made him appreciate the great importance of an information disclosure system to the mass media. These situations took place during his three-year experience as head of the editing department (his term beginning in 1977) of Kyodo News Service.
The first example was the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident. The U.S. government's Power Regulation Committee had published the minutes of its meetings daily. This response to the accident was entirely different, Mr. Hara said, from the response given by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation during the "Monju" fire incident which took place in the Niigata prefecture in January 1996, when there was no apparent attempt made to share information with the media.
The second example was the case of Sweden, which established an information disclosure system as early as 1766. This system allows newspaper journalists free access to letters sent to the Stockholm City Mayor's office.
The third example was the Kyodo News Service Washington bureau's 1979 exposure of the KCIA's (Korean Central Intelligence Agency) involvement in the Kim Dae Jung Incident of August 1973. The KCIA's involvement was proved by an official telegram sent from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to the U.S. government. The Kyodo's Washington bureau obtained the document by filing a request under the FOIA.
Mr. Hara stressed that for a closed society like Japan, the Information Disclosure Law will bring about a kind of civil revolution that will change the basic structure of society. He also emphasized the great impact that information disclosure will have on journalists.
Based on the two journalists' reports on public disclosure of information, the JCLU Secretary General Hiroshi Miyake introduced the organization's Model Outline of Information Disclosure Law in December, 1995. On April 24, 1996, the Subcommittee on Administrative Reform of the government's Administrative Reform Committee introduced the Outline of the Information Disclosure Law ("Midterm Report"). The speaker compared the recent report by the government board with the JCLU's suggestions, and elaborated on its shortcomings.
According to Mr. Miyake, the problem with the Japanese Government's Midterm Report is that it has no restrictions to the privilege of declining to answer on the existence of requested documents. In the U.S., in contrast, common law holds that when the government is petitioned as to whether it has information, a disposition declining to answer is permitted only when the information is related to criminal records, national security, or is considered non-pertinent to the issue at hand.
Mr. Miyake also considered problematic the fact that information obtained from private industries by government officials with promises of confidentiality is certified as a non-disclosure item. Especially in Japan -- where administrative guidance is favored over strict adherence to laws and ordinances when obtaining non-mandatory private industry information -- there is a danger that large amounts of industry information will never be disclosed.
JCLU Board Member Mikio Akiyama, who is also an expert member of the government board, spoke from the floor and shared with the audience the principles which guided it in drafting the Midterm Report. The Report includes in its general provisions that "[I]n accordance with the principle of sovereignty of the people, this law shall provide for the right of the people to request disclosure of administrative information." This clause was inserted in order to clarify that the basis of the law resides in the Constitution.
In response, Dokkyo University Professor Mr. Masahiro Uzaki remarked that the Information Disclosure Law should not only include an objective but also an explicit guarantee of the "right to know." In this way, he added, it further clarifies the nature of the Law as not merely an abstract ideal based on people's sovereignty but as a more substantive instrument to promote human rights.
Of the over 200 participants, most were students. Indeed, this turnout seems to suggest that the future of the movement is highly contingent on attracting the commitment of the younger generation.