Japan hold meeting to create its own US-style security council

Tokyo, Feb 15 (Kyodo) The Japanese government will hold a meeting of a panel of experts on Friday to discuss how to create Japanese version of the US National Security Council to strengthen the leadership role of the prime minister's office in security and diplomatic affairs. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who pledged to set up the body during campaigning for the general election in December, will head the 13-member panel, whose members include Shotaro Yachi, a former top bureaucrat at the Foreign Ministry and the brain behind Abe's diplomatic policies. Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga has said the recent hostage crisis in Algeria, which resulted in the deaths of 10 Japanese nationals, underscores the need for a council to strengthen the country's intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities. The council is also aimed at speeding up decision-making by the prime minister's office on diplomatic and foreign affairs amid China's rising military assertiveness and North Korea's pursuit of missile and nuclear ambitions. Abe set up a similar panel during his previous stint as prime minister in 2006 but a bill aimed at establishing the council was scrapped by Yasuo Fukuda, his successor as prime minister, in 2007, when there were slim prospects for the bill to be passed in a divided Diet with the opposition camp in control of the upper house. The new panel includes three government officials and nine experts. (Kyodo) GVS 02151604 NNNN