Photo/Illutration Protesters oppose a bill to reform the Science Council of Japan in Tokyo’s Nagatacho district on May 13. (Koichi Ueda)

A bill to turn the Science Council of Japan into a separate legal entity passed the Lower House despite lingering concerns that it could allow government intervention to stifle academic freedom.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its junior coalition partner, Komeito, opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and others voted for the bill at a plenary session on May 13.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People, Reiwa Shinsengumi, the Japanese Communist Party and others opposed it. 

The bill is expected to be enacted during the current ordinary Diet session, which ends on June 22, as the ruling coalition parties control a majority in the Upper House.

The legislation would convert the SCJ, a state organization, into a special corporation in October next year.

While the prime minister has appointed SCJ members, the reorganized entity would select its own members.

However, two outsiders would be assigned as auditors to inspect its operations, and an evaluation committee would be set up to assess its activities.

Scholars and opposition lawmakers said the new systems would threaten the SCJ’s independence because the prime minister would pick both auditors and committee members.

“Many mechanisms have been built into the framework to allow the government to intervene if it chooses to,” Toshihiro Yama of the CDP told the Lower House plenary session on May 13.

The SCJ had called for revisions to the bill, saying it fails to fully ensure the academy’s independence from the government.

A group of researchers and other citizens called for scrapping the bill at a rally near the Diet building on May 13 before Lower House members voted on the legislation.

The CDP will seek to incorporate a provision into the bill in the Upper House to guarantee that the SCJ’s independence will be respected.

In the Lower House deliberations, the government said auditors and the evaluation committee would not intervene into SCJ members’ academic research.

The government also said the change into a special corporation would clarify the SCJ’s organizational independence and rejected a CDP-proposed new provision.

Discussions on the SCJ’s reorganization started after the administration of former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga rejected the appointment of six new members nominated by the SCJ, who were seen as critical of government policies, in 2020.

The government bill includes a provision about removal of SCJ members.

Manabu Sakai, minister of state in charge of the bill, has said members who repeat certain ideological or partisan arguments can be removed.

Opposition lawmakers plan to question the government's stance on the issue in the Upper House.

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