18 April 2017

News Story: Gov't to discard 'special state secrets' for 1st time under secrecy law

In what is believed to be the first time since the State Secrecy Law went into effect in late 2014, government ministries and agencies are preparing to dispose of documents that include information designated "special state secrets," the Mainichi Shimbun has learned from multiple sources including the Cabinet Office.

The documents are expected to be discarded on a rolling basis, but unlike other public documents, classified documents are not subject to the same checks by a third party before they are scrapped.

Experts have expressed concern about the possibility that documents that should be preserved will be discarded.

Under the Public Records and Archives Management Act, documents that include special state secrets, like other government documents, can be disposed of after they undergo checks by the Cabinet Office once their storage term is up.

Read the full story at The Mainichi