{"id":4846,"date":"2026-07-24T12:39:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=4846"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:39:54","slug":"japan-to-launch-new-intelligence-agency-and-intel-oversight-body-at-end-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=4846","title":{"rendered":"Japan to launch new intelligence agency and intel oversight body at end of July"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 Japan is set to launch a new counterintelligence agency, the National Intelligence Bureau, and hold the first meeting of its new National Intelligence Council on July 31.<\/p>\n

Read more Pentagon, Oracle sign massive software consolidation contract worth nearly $7B over next decade<\/a><\/p>\n

The decisions were approved by the Cabinet Friday, Japanese media reported from Tokyo, citing growing intelligence threats. The initiatives were enabled by legislation passed in May; more is expected to be forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will chair the inaugural meeting of the 10-member NIC. Kazuya Hara, director of Cabinet intelligence and a former senior police official, will lead the new NIB.<\/p>\n

The moves to upgrade intel collection, analysis and sharing may be overdue. British defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute in June dubbed Japan a \u201cspy paradise\u201d for its lax counterintelligence and related laws.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s bureaucratic neo-ninjas<\/strong><\/p>\n

The NIB is an expansion of an existing body, the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. Its core function will be to act as a control tower over Japan\u2019s existing network of spooks.<\/p>\n

According to a July 26 editorial in Kyodo News, Japan\u2019s agencies lack appropriate numbers of analysts and, due to a culture notoriously embedded in the nation\u2019s bureaucracies, do not share intelligence beyond their own silos.<\/p>\n

Those agencies are: The Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, which forms the skeleton of the new NIB; the Self Defense Force\u2019s Defense Intelligence Headquarters, which specializes in signals intelligence; the Justice Ministry\u2019s Public Security Intelligence Agency, which monitors domestic extremists and extremist groups; and the Foreign Ministry\u2019s Intelligence and Analysis Service that evaluates global developments and threats.<\/p>\n

In a June report, \u201cRe-Establishing Japan\u2019s Intelligence Capability \u2014 \u2018Spy Paradise\u2019 lost?\u201d RUSI stated that Japan\u2019s overseas intelligence gathering has been too conservative and said military attaches in embassies worldwide are not fully enabled in their role.<\/p>\n

Even so, Japanese foreign intelligence has pulled off at least one major coup.<\/p>\n

Insertion of human intelligence assets into the elite ranks of North Korea \u2014 let alone into the corridors of its ruling family \u2014 is incredibly difficult. Yet, Tokyo managed it.<\/p>\n

From 2001 to 2008, Kenji Fujimoto, a sushi chef, served in the household of the late dictator Kim Jong-il, a noted gourmand. Though Mr. Fujimoto was undoubtedly a professional chef, and subsequently wrote a book and spoke to media about his experiences in the Kim household, a person familiar with South Korean intelligence told this newspaper that he clandestinely reported to Tokyo spies.<\/p>\n

This kind of work, taking place in Japan\u2019s own backyard, could make Tokyo spies highly valuable to their colleagues in more distant democracies.<\/p>\n

\u201cJapan\u2019s proximity to China, Russia and [North Korea] places it in an advantageous position,\u201d RUSI wrote. \u201cSetting up new institutions and appointing more staff increases opportunities for professional relationships that bring \u2026 \u2018quasi allies\u2019 together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Ukraine\u2019s Zelenskyy offering fired defense minister new job as protests continue over his dismissal<\/a><\/p>\n

At home, it is widely believed that Japan is vulnerable to foreign agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current system has too many vulnerabilities,\u201d RUSI wrote. \u201cJapan\u2019s 2014 \u2018Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets,\u2019 only applies to information that has been actively designated as secret by a government agency. It does not criminalize acting as a clandestine agent for a foreign power or accepting payment from a foreign intelligence service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Takaichi, who took office in October 2025, has taken an uncompromising stance toward security \u2014 clear in her attitude toward China. Now, she is turning her attention to intelligence, overseas spies in Japan may come under pressure.<\/p>\n

One of the NIB\u2019s first planned initiatives is to register agents of foreign governments who are engaged in lobbying in Japan. That kind of system \u2014 as used in Washington \u2014 has not, so far, existed in Japan.<\/p>\n

Recent reports make clear the importance of such a system.<\/p>\n

The Ukraine War has prompted Ukrainian and Russian procurers to travel overseas, scouring the electronics markets of manufacturing nations, including China, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, for the dual-use components that keep their high-tech military-industrial complexes ticking over.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian purchases have easy routes home via Eastern Europe, but Russia is heavily sanctioned. As a result, trade data shows that Russian buys are being funneled home across porous borders in states including not just China, but also Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and several of the Central Asian \u2018Stans.<\/p>\n

In an investigative story that cited unnamed Western intelligence officials and was widely quoted in Japanese media, The New York Times reported on July 7 that after Russian intelligence assets were expelled from embassies across the Western world, many relocated to Japan.<\/p>\n

Russia operates a clandestine, procurement-dedicated organization, the 20th Directorate, The Times reported.<\/p>\n

In Japan, operating under the cover of Russian airline Aeroflot, the directorate\u2019s Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov, an officer in Moscow\u2019s military intelligence, or GRU, has been so successful that 90% of Russian drones downed in Ukraine contain Japanese components.<\/p>\n

The Times also revealed that the Russian efforts were known to Ukrainian agencies, prompting Kyiv to send eight official letters to Japan\u2019s Foreign Ministry informing it of the directorate\u2019s activities \u2014 to no effect.<\/p>\n

Mr. Filchenkov\u2019s media unmasking, however, appears to have had an impact. On Thursday, he reportedly exited Japan.<\/p>\n

Read more LISTEN: Should Trump declare victory and end the Iran war?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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