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At a press conference on the 2nd, Secretary of State Katsunobu Kato decided the right to appoint the prime minister on the issue of canceling the appointment of six new candidate members of the special national organization “Academic Conference of Japan” which proposes policies since the point of view of academics. In 2018, the Cabinet Office and the Cabinet Legislation Office discussed the conference law and stated that they had “confirmed the interpretation.” I did not mention what I confirmed, but I may have changed the interpretation to allow denial of appointment at this time. (Shunsuke Inoue, Takahiro Kitani)
A recent example of the government not announcing a change in legal interpretation was that the Abe government approved the extension of the retirement age for the prosecution, which was prohibited by the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office, based on the Service Law. National Civil in January of this year. .. Prime Minister Yoshii Suga, who was Secretary of State at the time, said: “I do not think it is necessary to publicize matters related to the personnel system such as this change in interpretation.”
According to the Cabinet Office of Legislation, discussions on the interpretation of the Japan Academic Conference Law were held at the request of the Cabinet Office in 2018, and the interpretation was verbally reconfirmed on September 2 of this year.
◆ Secretary of State Kato “Appropriate response based on law”
Mr. Kato explained about the discussion in 2018 that “the idea of the Legal Affairs Office has been organized regarding the recommendation (of the academic conference) and the appointment (of the prime minister).” I did not speak of specific exchanges. At the official residence, reporters asked the prime minister the reason for the postponement of the appointment, and he replied incessantly: “It is the result of an adequate response based on the law.
In March 2017, the Academic Council issued a statement criticizing the Ministry of Defense’s subsidy system for basic research of military application. The confirmation of the legal interpretation corresponds to the following year. The six people who were not appointed as new members this time criticized the Abe administration’s policies, such as laws related to security and the Specified Secret Protection Act.
◆ To avoid painful recommendations?
At a meeting held by opposition parties such as the Democratic Constitutional Party in the Diet on the 2nd, Mr. Osamu Yahagi, Counselor in the Cabinet Office, drew up a list of new members of the academic conference on September 24, and the official residence was approved on the 28th. explained. When the names of the six were deleted, he did not reveal that he was reviewing the relevant documents.
Of the six people who were not appointed as new members, Professor Masanori Okada (Administrative Law) from Waseda University Graduate School attended the opposition meeting. Professor Takaaki Matsumiya (Criminal Law) from Ritsumeikan University Graduate School and Professor Ryuichi Ozawa (Constitutional Studies) from Tokyo Jiekai Medical College also participated online and shared their views.
Meanwhile, at the general meeting on the 2nd, the Japan Academy of Sciences decided to submit a request to the Prime Minister to reappoint six people.
