Japan approves national security council bills

Updated: 2013-06-07 16:33

(Agencies)

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government on Friday approved legislation to set up a national security council, moving to strengthen the premier's grip on foreign policy.

Abe has pursued the formation of Japan's version of the White House's National Security Council to centralise information gathering and speed up decision-making.

"We have put in place a structure that allows Japan to comprehensively monitor the country's security," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters at a news conference.

The bills are now to be submitted to the current session of parliament, which ends on June 26, for possible enactment in an extraordinary diet session in the fall.

Similar legislation was presented to parliament six years ago when Abe served his first term as prime minister, but it was dropped after his resignation in the wake of a one-year stint troubled by cabinet-level scandals and his Liberal Democratic Party's rout in an upper-house poll.

Under the security council framework, the prime minister, chief cabinet secretary, foreign and defence ministers would meet regularly to hammer out strategy, while relevant ministers would be called together to respond to emergency situations.

Ministries would be required to quickly provide key information to help the council play a commanding role in setting security policies and handling national emergencies.

The current security council of nine ministers has been criticised as being too cumbersome, while relevant offices such as the defence and foreign ministries are said to take too long to share critical information.

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