Japan’s State Secrecy Debate: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

Abstract: The Japanese government managed to implement the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets (SDS) in late 2014, making it easier for government agencies to withhold information. The debate that was ignited by the SDS is central to this thesis. Existing research on the SDS can be characterized as a battle for truth, with a focus on the surface effects of the law. In contrast, this paper approaches the debate as a discourse, with a particular focus on the Japanese government and the Japanese media. Essentially both of them claim to act in the national interest, but their arguments have thus far not been scrutinized. This paper has identified three fundamental arguments in the state secrecy debate: “safety” (the government’s reason for proposing the SDS), the “right to know” (mass-media criticism of the SDS) and “transparency” (the counter-argument by the government to the “right to know” critique). Utilizing Foucault’s understanding of discourse, this thesis focuses on statements made by media and government in which the aforementioned arguments appear, and scrutinizing the unproblematic manner in which they are accepted as arguments to further Japanese public interest.