Japan to Accelerate the Establishment of a National Intelligence Agency

To strengthen intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities, the Japanese government and ruling party plan to establish a “National Intelligence Agency” as early as fiscal year 2026. The National Intelligence Agency will serve as a command center for aggregating intelligence collected by various ministries and agencies and relaying it to the Prime Minister’s Office. A related bill will be submitted to the regular Diet session in 2026.

Currently, intelligence activities in Japan are fragmented across multiple departments, including the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (under the Cabinet Secretariat), the International Intelligence Coordinating Office (under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the Intelligence Headquarters (under the Ministry of Defense), and relevant departments of the National Police Agency. While these agencies provide intelligence to the National Security Secretariat (established in 2014) when necessary, the Japanese government has long felt a lack of a unified mechanism to effectively integrate intelligence activities.

The National Intelligence Agency will be positioned at the same level as the National Security Secretariat (NSS), which serves as the policy command center for diplomacy and national security. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister’s Office, it will focus on strengthening the intelligence system.

The motivation behind establishing the National Intelligence Agency stems from growing calls within Japan for countermeasures against foreign powers engaged in espionage. The challenges that need to be addressed include concerns about the spread of disinformation and misinformation online by the government, and interference in elections.

Japan needs to strengthen the role of its intelligence command center, centralizing the intelligence gathering and analysis agencies of various ministries and agencies for unified management.

The first step required is to strengthen the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. A system should be established whereby the National Security Secretariat (NSS) is responsible for foreign and security policy, while the National Intelligence Service (NIS) acts as the command center for intelligence. The NIS will be headed by a newly appointed director.

The National Security Secretariat serves as the secretariat of the National Security Council (NSC). The NSC, headed by the Prime Minister, is responsible for reviewing important security policies. A National Intelligence Council will also be established in the future, envisioned to collect the relevant intelligence needed by the Prime Minister to determine policy.