Ruling on lawsuits brought by members of a citizens' group, the Supreme Court this month ordered the government to disclose some administrative documents related to secret funds under the Cabinet Secretariat. However, it stopped short of ordering disclosure of documents containing information on what purposes and for whom the funds were used. The ruling for the first time puts a hole — albeit a small one — in the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the funds, and has institutionalized partial disclosure of information on their use and operation. Both the government and the Diet should take the ruling seriously and create a system under which people can monitor how the secret funds are used. A way should be devised that will help people make meaningful judgments on the funds' use without harming national interests.

The secret funds, formally known as Cabinet Secretariat compensation expenses, provide the government with some flexibility in carrying out various operations. The chief Cabinet secretary makes a determination on how much and for what purposes the money should be used. The purposes include gaining cooperation in an informal manner from people related to important national policies and paying compensation to people who provide intelligence to the government. Annually, some ¥1.4 billion is earmarked for the funds.

The citizens' group filed the lawsuits after its requests under the freedom of information law were turned down for documents related to a total of ¥2.71 billion in secret funds spent under three chief Cabinet secretaries — ¥1.1 billion under Shinzo Abe in the Koizumi administration in 2005 and 2006, ¥250 million under Takeo Kawamura in the Aso administration in 2009 and ¥1.36 billion under Yoshihide Suga in the Abe administration in 2013.