EXCLUSIVE: LDP Eyes Mandatory Reporting by Foreign Agents in Japan

Tokyo, Feb. 21 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will propose considering a system similar to the foreign agent registration systems of other countries including the United States and Britain, which oblige foreign agents to report their activities, Jiji Press learned Saturday. This will be included in recommendations to be shortly finalized by the party’s intelligence strategy headquarters and submitted to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who seeks to strengthen her country’s intelligence activities. According to a draft of the recommendations, the LDP will call for examining whether existing laws are sufficient to detect and curb intelligence activities by foreign entities and considering new legislation if necessary. The party will note that, as part of counterintelligence efforts, more countries are banning visitors to important government facilities from carrying mobile phones or entering with electric vehicles, and will urge a drastic review of related operations in Japan. Regarding Japan’s intelligence-gathering efforts, the party will emphasize the “overwhelming need” to enhance its signals intelligence, or SIGINT, capabilities, including gathering and analyzing telecommunications, radio waves and electronic signals. The party will also mention human intelligence, or HUMINT, and propose expanding the personnel and budget of the Foreign Ministry’s international terrorism information collection unit and considering the establishment of a new foreign intelligence agency. Additionally, the party will request that the government compile a national intelligence strategy for intelligence activities in the medium to long term. It will suggest upgrading the status of the head of an envisaged national intelligence bureau from the administrative vice minister level to the parliamentary vice minister level. To draw up concrete measures to strengthen intelligence capabilities, the party will propose establishing a panel of experts as early as this summer. The LDP intelligence strategy headquarters, led by party policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi, will continue discussions on preventing espionage activities and compile a new set of proposals as early as this summer. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]