Japan Govt Submits Bill to Create National Intelligence Council

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government adopted a bill to create a national intelligence council at a cabinet meeting on Friday and then submitted the bill to the Diet. The bill also calls for establishing a national intelligence bureau to serve as the secretariat of the council, which will be chaired by the prime minister. The new bodies, which the government plans to establish as early as July, will formulate a medium- to long-term intelligence strategy by gathering and analyzing information from each ministry and agency. The establishment of the council will mark the first step in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s intelligence reform initiative. After the launch of the council, the Takaichi administration will begin full-fledged discussions on the creation of a foreign intelligence agency and the enactment of anti-espionage legislation, both included in the coalition agreement between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party. The national intelligence council will promote intelligence activities concerning national security and counterterrorism and develop a basic plan for responding to foreign intelligence activities, including by foreign spies. In addition to the prime minister, nine ministers, including the chief cabinet secretary, the financial services minister and the chair of the National Public Safety Commission, will join the council. Meanwhile, the national intelligence bureau will be headed by an official of the same rank as the secretary-general of the National Security Secretariat. The bill would obligate ministries and agencies to provide documents and information to the national intelligence council, in response to concerns that Japan has not fully utilized information held by each of them. Regarding this obligation, Junya Ogawa, leader of the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, expressed concern that gathered information could be used for political purposes. “We’re extremely cautious” about deliberating the bill, Ogawa said at a press conference. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]