Economic security minister Kimi Odawara said her Diet answer on barring foreign governments and military personnel from buying land near security sites was not meant to single out any one country, after she told lawmakers Chinese nationals would effectively be excluded.
Speaking at a news conference on the 10th, Odawara addressed her reply on a bill to revise the land use regulation law. The bill would bar ownership transfers to foreign governments and foreign military personnel in principle, Sankei Shimbun reported.
"It was not an answer that said people of a specific country would not be permitted," she said. She said the provision is not framed with any particular country in mind.
What the bill would do
The bill designates areas within roughly 1,000 meters of Self-Defense Forces bases and unmanned remote border islands as "restricted zones." Those bases could have their functions seriously impaired by drone attacks.
Land purchases inside a restricted zone would require prior government permission. The ban would also cover corporations effectively controlled by foreign governments or military personnel.
It would extend to anyone obliged to cooperate with a foreign government's intelligence-gathering activities.
The exchange in the Upper House
The question came at the Upper House Cabinet Committee on October 27 from Rui Matsukawa of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Matsukawa said many citizens had voiced dissatisfaction and concern that Japan had no restrictions on foreign ownership of security-sensitive land, while other countries have long had them. She asked how permission would work for foreigners acquiring land in restricted zones.
Odawara replied that permission would in principle be refused for individuals and corporations obliged under foreign laws to cooperate with foreign governments. She said the same would apply to corporations controlled by foreign governments.
She said some corporations look clean on the surface but are effectively run by parties that pose a security risk. Decisions on permission would therefore examine substantive control, she said.
Matsukawa raised China's National Defense Mobilization Law, which sets out how the president issues a mobilization order in an emergency and covers Chinese nationals living abroad. She also cited the National Intelligence Law, which obliges cooperation with Chinese government intelligence work.
She asked whether, given those laws, Chinese nationals as well as Chinese government officials would be unable to acquire land in the zones. "As I answered earlier, that is correct," Odawara said.
Pressed again at the news conference
Reporters asked Odawara on the 10th whether Chinese nationals, not only Chinese government officials, would effectively be unable to buy land in restricted zones.
She repeated that the provision is not framed with a specific country in mind. She said her earlier answer had concerned people obliged under foreign laws to cooperate with foreign governments, not a particular country.
The Cabinet has approved the revision bill. It would also bar foreign governments and military personnel from acquiring land around SDF bases.