Rikako Watai: Law Surrounding National Security and Ensuring Food Security

2022/10/14

In Japan, laws and judicial precedents have never provided a clear definition of national security. In the United States, there is an example from a 1971 Supreme Court ruling where Justice Black stated that "security is a broad, vague, generality."

This trial was the famous Pentagon Papers case, which was also made into a movie. It was a case in which the federal government sued newspapers to seek an injunction against the publication of secret documents regarding the Vietnam War prepared by the Department of Defense, citing national security as the reason.

National security used to be discussed in a military context, as in the Pentagon Papers case. However, the concept of security has gradually expanded its scope. For example, the United Nations Development Programme, a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly, introduced the concept of human security in its 1994 "Human Development Report."

The concept of human security includes food security, which the report defined as ensuring that everyone has physical and economic access to basic food at all times. In Japan, Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the "Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas Basic Act" enacted in 1999 also stipulates that a stable supply of high-quality food must be provided at reasonable prices.

Traditionally, discussions on food safety centered on measures against contaminants in food. In this sense, "safety" is the term used. However, food security encourages examination from the perspective of "security" rather than just "safety." It can be said that food safety has moved beyond quality safety to become a matter of national security.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan's food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal 2021 remained at 38% on a calorie basis and a record low of 63% on a production value basis. The Japanese government has set a goal to raise these figures to 45% on a calorie basis and 75% on a production value basis by 2030. To achieve this, given the prolonged situation in Ukraine, the key will be how to strengthen food supply chains.

A supply chain refers to the series of supply networks from raw materials becoming products to reaching consumers. With economic globalization, supply chains have come to include countries with socio-economic systems different from Japan's. While this situation poses a risk to the supply chain, it must be said that it is difficult to completely cut off (decouple) non-allied countries from the supply chain. Therefore, how to ensure food safety, including the promotion of domestic agriculture, is a crucial issue today.

Japan formulated its first National Security Strategy in December 2013, establishing basic policies for foreign and defense policies related to security. Recently, policies regarding economic security are being developed to secure Japan's interests from an economic perspective. References to economic security are also expected to be included in the revision of the National Security Strategy scheduled for the end of this year.

Recent laws from a security standpoint include the "Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on Remote Border Islands" (Important Land Use Restriction Act) established in June 2021, followed by the "Act on the Promotion of Ensuring National Security through Integrated Implementation of Economic Measures" (Economic Security Promotion Act) passed in May of this year. However, neither of these addressed the issue of food.

The Important Land Use Restriction Act contains provisions for investigating the usage status of designated areas around facilities important for national security and on remote islands near national borders. Regarding food security, the usage of farmland and water sources is an issue, but these are not currently covered. The Economic Security Promotion Act introduces measures to strengthen supply chain resilience and assumes semiconductors and pharmaceuticals as target materials, but makes no mention of food.

The supplementary provisions of the Important Land Use Restriction Act stipulate that the status of implementation will be reviewed after five years, and the Economic Security Promotion Act after three years, with necessary measures to be taken based on the results. Given that food is closely related to the lives of the people, it seems necessary to take a multifaceted approach not only by improving the food self-sufficiency rate but also from a legal system perspective. Japan's response to food security is likely to begin in earnest from now on.

If we compare security issues to a computer, they can be described as an essential foundation, much like an operating system. To make that foundation solid, it is vital to further promote cooperation between the public and private sectors and to share a sense of security (sense) and a vision of security (vision) as a whole society.