Japan holds inaugural meeting to boost Cabinet security capabilities

TOKYO, Feb. 25 Kyodo -
The Japanese government on Friday convened the inaugural meeting of a team to explore ways to boost the Cabinet's ability to collect information pertaining to national security, with an eye to possibly creating a Japanese version of the U.S. National Security Council.
The move came in response to Japan's defense policy outline adopted in December, which called for the creation of an entity at the premier's office to coordinate policy among relevant ministers and advise the prime minister on defense-related matters, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
Edano, who spearheads the four-member panel, said the team will review the government's past handling of diplomatic and security matters, and emergency situations.
The team, consisting of Edano and his three deputy chief Cabinet secretaries, will also study security structures in other countries and simulate contingency scenarios.
Edano said the government has yet to decide on whether it will establish a Japanese version of the U.S. National Security Council, the president's principal forum for studying national security and foreign policy matters with senior security advisers and Cabinet officials.
''We would like to look into what kind of structure would be effective in gathering information,'' the chief Cabinet secretary said.
Ahead of the defense policy outline, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan proposed last year to set up a national security council to enhance the information-gathering capability of the premier's office.