What the Cabinet approved

The Prime Minister's Office lists the bill to amend the Important Land Survey Act (重要土地等調査法) among the bills decided at the regular Cabinet meeting on Friday 23 October. The Cabinet Office, which runs the Act, posted the bill, its outline and a comparison of old and new text the same day and gives 23 October as the date it was submitted to the Diet.

The bill creates a new tier called "regulated areas" (規制区域). The Prime Minister may designate an existing special monitored area as a regulated area where the facility is a defence or Coast Guard site that could be seriously damaged by attacks that are hard to detect in advance, such as drones gathered in secret, and whose function would be hard to restore. The Cabinet Office outline gives fighter aircraft and radar as examples and puts the zone at roughly 1,000 metres around the site. Uninhabited border islands that meet a similar test can also be designated.

What would change for buyers

  • Permission before transfer. Inside a regulated area, the parties to any transfer of ownership of land or buildings would need the Prime Minister's permission before handover (Article 15). The requirement covers every buyer, Japanese or foreign. The Cabinet Office outline says there is no minimum plot size.
  • Who would be refused. Permission must be refused for foreign governments and their agencies, people actually serving with a foreign military, people bound by contract or foreign law to support a foreign military, and companies in which such persons from one country hold at least half the votes or half the board seats. It must also be refused where there are reasonable grounds to think the buyer would use the land to damage the facility, gather intelligence on it or harm the island's function (Article 17(1)). The Prime Minister may still grant permission in special cases where such misuse is clearly ruled out (Article 17(2)).
  • No permission, no transfer. A transfer made without permission would have no legal effect (Article 15(2)). Transferring or taking delivery without permission, or getting permission by deception, would carry up to three years in prison or a fine of up to ¥3 million (Article 37).
  • Mergers and changes of control. A company that acquires land in a regulated area through a merger or split must notify the Prime Minister, and so must a company that owns such land and comes under the control described above. In either case the Prime Minister can order it to sell within one year. If it does not, the state can apply to have the property auctioned (Articles 18 and 19).
  • Leases. Granting or transferring a lease or other right to use land in a regulated area would have to be reported to the Prime Minister after the fact (Article 20).

The bill also adds the Imperial Palace, the Diet building, the Prime Minister's Office and the buildings of crisis-management agencies to the list of important facilities around which watch zones can be set.

What the law says now

The Act (No. 84 of 2021) has been fully in force since 20 September 2022. In special monitored areas around the most critical facilities, parties to a land or building transfer must notify the Prime Minister in advance, unless the plot is below a size set by cabinet order of at least 200 square metres. Failing to notify carries up to six months in prison or a fine of up to ¥1 million. The current Act has no permission requirement.

What happens next

The bill must pass both houses of the Diet. At 5:12 pm Singapore time on 23 October, the House of Representatives and House of Councillors bill lists did not yet show it; the Councillors' list was dated 22 October. If passed, most of the changes would take effect on a date set by cabinet order within 18 months of promulgation. No regulated area exists until the Prime Minister designates one.

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Sources

Sources read 23 October 2026.