Japan Lower House to Install Security Cameras in Diet Building

Tokyo, Aug. 2 (Jiji Press)--The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, will install security cameras in the Diet building starting in fiscal 2027.

The plan has been considered partly in response to an incident in which a government employee secretly filmed a woman in a Diet building restroom in 2021.

The planned move to expand camera coverage beyond the areas around the gates and fences raises concerns about increased surveillance, as negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties over the handling of important bills are often conducted behind closed doors in the Diet building.

In June, a Lower House Steering Committee panel unanimously approved the plan to install security cameras in the main part of the building and an annex as well as at the entrance to and in the corridors of another annex.

Waiting rooms allocated to each Diet group will not be monitored. The number of security cameras and the necessary costs will be determined later. When the matter was considered in 2015, the total cost was estimated at 180 million yen for 66 cameras.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]