The Abe administration defied public criticism and resistance from the opposition camp and had the state secrets bill enacted in early December. It can hardly be said that the contentious legislation was adequately deliberated in the Diet. Flip-flops in government explanations underlined the shaky nature of the law. The Abe administration and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party justify their action on the grounds that majority rule in the legislature is the essence of democracy.

True, democracy is a mechanism that transforms the will of a majority into the will of the whole. But treating the will of a majority as the will of the whole is a fiction. Historically the majority has been aware of this and made efforts to accommodate the public opinion or the will of minorities to a certain extent in order to maintain the legitimacy of the majority's power.

Institutions wearing the cloak of a neutral and public character and placed at a certain distance from the majority have existed either within the governing organization or in the middle ground between the government power and the civil society to play a role in the policymaking process. Such a mechanism has been indispensable to ensure a stable rule.