A bill to establish a Japanese version of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) passed on Wednesday. The new agency will launch in July with a workforce of 700.
According to Japanese media including the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) and the Yomiuri Shimbun on Wednesday, the bill to create the National Intelligence Agency and its command body, the National Intelligence Council, was passed at a plenary session of Japan's House of Councillors (upper house) on Wednesday afternoon. The legislation establishes the National Intelligence Council, which will serve as the Japanese government's command center for intelligence gathering and analysis, alongside the National Intelligence Agency that will handle operational duties.
The National Intelligence Agency will launch through the reorganization of the existing Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, an intelligence body under the direct authority of the prime minister. It will take exclusive charge of command functions, centralizing and analyzing information that has until now been collected separately by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Public Security Intelligence Agency, the foreign affairs and public security divisions of the National Police Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense. The National Intelligence Agency and its director will hold positions equivalent to the National Security Secretariat (NSS) and its director, which plan Japan's foreign and security policies.
The National Intelligence Council, which will serve as the command body, will be chaired by the prime minister and comprise nine related cabinet ministers, including the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, the chief cabinet secretary, the justice minister, and the foreign minister. It will be tasked with establishing basic policies on key intelligence related to security and terrorism, as well as responses to information activities by foreign powers.
The establishment of the National Intelligence Council and the National Intelligence Agency is one of the core policies of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Takaichi pledged the initiative during the House of Representatives election in February. The creation of these bodies reflects a recognition that the security environment surrounding Japan is becoming increasingly severe.
Takaichi has stressed that the law is necessary to protect the safety of citizens and secure national interests. At a House of Councillors Cabinet Committee meeting the previous day, she said, "In order to prevent serious crises in advance, it is important to establish a system in which the intelligence sector underpins solid decision-making in the policy sector."
In addition to creating the National Intelligence Council, Takaichi is also pushing for the enactment of an "anti-spy law" that would prohibit the illegal collection of confidential information from public institutions and corporations, as well as the establishment of a "foreign intelligence agency" to gather information overseas.
