(CNN) — Japan is launching a new centralized intelligence body for the first time since World War II – a controversial move that some fear deviates from Tokyo’s pacifist ideals, but one others say is much needed in a country so riddled with security weaknesses it has been called a “paradise for spies.”
The National Intelligence Bureau will formally launch on Friday, replacing previous structures criticized as disjointed and ineffective – and laying the foundation, experts say, for broader changes that could include an anti-spy law and a new external foreign intelligence agency similar to the CIA in the US, or MI6 in the UK.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi nodded to these ambitions on Monday, saying: “These measures are merely the first step in intelligence reform.”
“As we look at the increasingly unstable global situation, it is imperative that we address new methods of warfare,” she said.
Takaichi has spearheaded these efforts since she was elected last October. A staunch conservative, she has advocated stronger security and defense, and supports revising Japan’s pacifist constitution.
Her administration has reached out to its Western partners, including the US, Australia and Germany, for advice on strengthening its intelligence capabilities, reported The New York Times in July, citing people familiar with the matter.
What is the new National Intelligence Bureau?
Until now, Japan’s main intelligence body has been the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO), which has about 700 employees but holds little authority.
Other intelligence teams in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense, the National Police Agency, and other branches all gather information but often fail to share intelligence in a cohesive or strategic way, said James D.J. Brown, a professor of political science at Temple University’s Japan campus who has authored a book on Russian espionage in Japan.
From Friday, CIRO will be upgraded to the National Intelligence Bureau, an operational and administrative body that collects and analyzes intelligence from various government bodies.
Most importantly, the bureau has been elevated in importance, and other ministries are now formally required to share their information. It will be overseen by the newly formed National Intelligence Council, headed by Takaichi and composed of top ministers.
Its national intelligence scope will include counterterrorism efforts, national emergency response, and countermeasures against foreign intelligence such as spy activity or covert influence operations.
Why is it necessary?
Imperial Japan once had a fearsome security and intelligence apparatus, which was used against its own citizens in crackdowns on dissent in the early 1900s.
After Japan’s defeat in WWII, there was a deliberate effort to democratize the nation and defang its intelligence community. But that means Japan now has significant weaknesses – remarkable for an advanced country that plays such a critical geopolitical role.
For instance, Japan doesn’t have its own foreign intelligence service, which is unusual compared with other major US allies like the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, said Philip Shetler-Jones, a senior research fellow of Indo-Pacific security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank.
It also doesn’t have an anti-espionage law, meaning foreign spies and local informants can collect information from within Japan “without breaking the law,” he said.
“It’s an anomaly because of the postwar situation. The occupation of Japan, followed by the security relationship with America, meant that the government of Japan didn’t really have to do a lot of that work because they were defended by America,” Shetler-Jones said.
But those weaknesses have major implications for Japan’s security and its position among global peers. “Japan is being seen as quite leaky – and if that’s the case, others won’t be so willing to share information because the next day you might find that it’s appearing in the papers, or it’s been leaked to a foreign power,” Brown said.
Some consequences are more severe. A bombshell New York Times investigation in July laid out how Moscow exploited these weaknesses to obtain and smuggle Japanese components into Russia – which were then used in missiles and drones against Ukraine.
Previous Japanese leaders have tried to enact change, most famously former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who warned in 1983 that Japan had become a “paradise for spies.” But his proposal for an anti-espionage law, which included punishment by death penalty, drew widespread backlash and failed to pass.
Part of that failure was also because it was simply too soon after the end of WWII, Brown said. Memories of Imperial Japan’s human rights abuses were still fresh in people’s minds – fueling fears that any such law or intelligence reform could backslide once again to surveillance, militarism and repression.
Why now?
Things look very different now for both Japan and the world.
Enough time has passed that memories of the war – and fears of returning to a police state – have eased among the Japanese public, said Brown. There’s also a growing recognition that Japan faces new and powerful threats.
Just across the sea lie North Korea, China and Russia, which all have powerful spying capacities that Japan isn’t fully equipped to fend off. As a US ally that hosts about 55,000 American troops on military bases, Japan makes an attractive target.
These countries could be seeking information on the activities of US soldiers in Japan, and the deployment of new US weapons, Brown said. Russia would be interested in stealing political secrets, such as Japan’s future policy on Ukraine. China could be hoping to glean technology secrets from Japanese companies.
Japanese people are also more alarmed because these three countries are “more aligned now than they have been for many years,” said Shetler-Jones, from RUSI.
This was on full display last September when Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked side by side at a military parade in Beijing – a show of unity among authoritarians. That cooperation was also seen in recent joint Russia-China naval drills, and in North Korea sending troops to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.
That all plays into the feeling that the power balance in the region is shifting, especially as China becomes more dominant. “There’s a sense that Japan will have to do more for the (US) alliance and for itself,” said Shetler-Jones. “Watching the war unfold in Europe, in Ukraine, has added to that sense that you’ve got to be proactive – even if you are fortunate enough to have a big, powerful ally like America.”
Takaichi, who has vocally supported beefing up Japan’s security capabilities, is the last piece of the puzzle. After a landslide victory in a snap election this February, she now commands a historic supermajority in the powerful lower house of parliament – clearing the way to enact legislative changes with minimal opposition.
Why is it controversial?
Not everyone is behind the push for intelligence reform. A number of lawmakers opposed the bill to establish the National Intelligence Bureau, and more than 200 people attended a protest against it in May ahead of the parliamentary vote, according to public broadcaster NHK.
“A nation’s intelligence apparatus is one of its most powerful institutions, and if allowed to run amok, it could seriously and unjustly infringe upon the human rights of its citizens,” said one such lawmaker, Makoto Oniki of the Constitutional Democratic Party, according to NHK.
“I oppose this bill, which not only raises concerns about unnecessary infringements on personal information and privacy but also strengthens its authority without any checks and balances in the form of democratic oversight — it is a bill with serious flaws,” Oniki said.
The next few items on Takaichi’s agenda – the anti-espionage law and the foreign intelligence service – will likely court even more controversy.
“There are laws around the world like this that are perfectly fine and democratic, but there are also authoritarian regimes that use such laws in order to prosecute critics,” said Brown. Russia, for instance, often accuses dissidents of being foreign agents – as it did to opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, who was assassinated while in prison.
To safeguard against these abuses of power, democracies like the UK and US have hearings, committees, and other measures to hold their intelligence bodies accountable, said Shetler-Jones.
With Japan’s new intelligence body, he added, “We haven’t seen as much as we might have expected about oversight mechanisms, and so I think it’s quite reasonable for people to continue to ask about that.”
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