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Japan’s state secrecy debate: A Foucauldian discourse analysis

van der List, Bobbie (2016) In Working papers in contemporary Asian studies 2016(53).
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 superficial 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’... (More)
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 superficial 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 the media and government in which the aforementioned arguments appear, and scrutinizes the unproblematic manner in which they are accepted as arguments to further Japanese public interest. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Asian studies, Japan, SDS, state secrecy debate, safety, right to know, transparency, national security, Foucauldian discourse analysis
in
Working papers in contemporary Asian studies
volume
2016
issue
53
pages
36 pages
publisher
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
ISSN
1652-4128
ISBN
978-91-981692-3-2
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
6bf96a1e-1601-42cb-afc9-8c18ef18af9b (old id 8857234)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 15:04:00
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:32:53
@misc{6bf96a1e-1601-42cb-afc9-8c18ef18af9b,
  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 superficial 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<br/><br>
act in the national interest, but their arguments have thus far not been<br/><br>
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 the media and government in which the aforementioned arguments appear, and scrutinizes the unproblematic manner in which they are accepted as arguments to further Japanese public interest.}},
  author       = {{van der List, Bobbie}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-981692-3-2}},
  issn         = {{1652-4128}},
  keywords     = {{Asian studies; Japan; SDS; state secrecy debate; safety; right to know; transparency; national security; Foucauldian discourse analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{53}},
  publisher    = {{Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Working papers in contemporary Asian studies}},
  title        = {{Japan’s state secrecy debate: A Foucauldian discourse analysis}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/4322213/8857235.pdf}},
  volume       = {{2016}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}