In April 2001, Japan's freedom of information law went into effect. But the law has many problems. For example, it does not have a clear clause that protects and promotes people's right to know. In a welcome move, the Hatoyama administration has disclosed a basic plan to revise the law.
A team in the Cabinet Office to consider ways "to make administration transparent" wrote the plan. It is headed by administrative reform minister Yukio Edano and includes lawyers and nonprofit organization officials.
Recent developments have exposed government ministries and agencies' tendency to hide decisions or decision-making processes from the public. For example, an experts' panel that studied secret Japan-U.S. pacts related to the joint security setup mentioned the possibility that the Foreign Ministry disposed of important documents that should exist.