Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's pledge to continue with the policy direction set by his predecessor apparently means he will follow the course of breaking with past practices regarding key personnel decisions.

Suga set off an uproar with academics on Oct. 1 when he refused to appoint six scholars to the Science Council of Japan. The six were all recommended by the council, but Suga refused to consider the recommendation, making him the first prime minister to do so.

Asked by reporters about his decision and an imminent request to be submitted by the council to reconsider, Suga said Oct. 2, “This is the result of handling the matter in an appropriate manner based on the law.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the same day that the government would not change its decision.

Opposition lawmakers also held their own hearing in the Diet that day. The law regarding the Science Council states that the prime minister has the authority to appoint new members.

But opposition lawmakers checked back on past responses in the Diet about the procedure and found a 1983 statement by a government official to an Upper House committee who said the recommendation system was a formality and that the government would not reject any recommendations made.

The lawmakers asked if the government interpretation of that provision had changed, contending that if it had not, Suga’s rejection would be a clear violation of the law.

Officials of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau were called to the hearing and they acknowledged that in both 2018 and September 2020 discussions were held about the interpretation of the Science Council law with officials of the Cabinet Office, which oversees the council.

A high-ranking bureau official said the bureau approved a document presented by the Cabinet Office in November 2018 when Shinzo Abe, Suga's predecessor, was still in power that confirmed the prime minister was not obligated to appoint all the scholars recommended by the council.

While the Abe administration began considering changing the appointments to the Science Council from two years ago, it was apparently left to Suga to actually go ahead with the change.

But the Abe administration often pushed aside high-ranking officials whose views were in conflict with what it wanted to do.

For example, in 2013, the commissioner of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau was replaced after he expressed reservations about changing the government interpretation regarding the exercise of the right of collective self-defense.

The successor was a Foreign Ministry official who was all in favor of changing the interpretation that past administrations said was only possible through an amendment to the pacifist Constitution.

In 2017, when selecting a new Supreme Court justice, the Abe administration again ignored a recommendation from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and appointed a legal scholar not on the federation’s list. An informal rule sets aside a certain number of justices coming from among practicing lawyers and past practice had been for the government to choose one from the list submitted by the federation.

“Reform was gradually undertaken by the previous Abe administration,” said a high-ranking official in the prime minister’s office. “It is wrong to say, ‘it is wrong because there is no precedent.’”

Critics said the rejection infringes on academic freedom guaranteed by Article 23 of the Constitution.

They said the article was included because of past history during World War II when a law professor at Kyoto University was ordered suspended from the institution because his views ran counter to those of the government.

The Science Council was established in 1949 with legal wording stating it was independent of the government even though it relies on government funds to operate.

The focus on independence was a reaction to the cooperation provided by scientists to the government in the war effort.

That past history also led the Science Council to release two separate statements in 1950 and 1967 ruling out any scientific research that contributes to war.

“Ever since the Abe administration, there has been a tendency to strengthen interference in personnel matters by the government by using its appointment authority,” said Iwao Sato, a law professor at the University of Tokyo who was a Science Council member until September. “That presents a danger of greatly changing the relationship between academia and politics.”

(This article was compiled from reports by Hiroki Koizumi, Naoki Kikuchi, Tetsuya Ishikura and Hisatoshi Kabata.)