Japan needs a way to keep patents with national security implications from being made public, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's new secretary-general told a Japanese media recently, bringing intellectual property into Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's economic security push.

This should be included in economic security legislation set to be submitted to parliament in 2022, Akira Amari said, warning that current law could "become an obstacle to securing a technological advantage."

While patent filings in Japan are generally made public after 18 months, other countries can block the release of applications involving technology with potential military uses, to keep them out of the hands of foreign countries or terrorist groups. In certain cases, the authorities provide compensation for forgone revenue from licensing, for example.

Amari also advocated replacing nuclear power facilities nearing the end of their 40-year life span with small modular reactors, which are reputed to be safer and to take less time to build. The latest draft of the government's basic energy plan calls for nuclear to be 20% to 22% of the power generation mix in fiscal 2030 but provides no details on the number of facilities needed for that goal.

There's a danger that patent law will become an obstacle to securing a technological advantage. Right now, when a patent is granted, it's made publicly available. That allows others to make the same things -- including some that can be diverted to military use. We absolutely need a way to keep patents secret. There are [systems for this] all over the world, but not in Japan.

Research with military applications has been conducted using Japanese public research funds in countries that pose a risk to Japan. Such cases should be excluded from government support.