For the first time since World War II, Japan is on the verge of setting up a centralized intelligence service. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has pushed through legislation to form a unified intelligence body. In her view, intelligence is currently spread out across dozens of ministries, leaving the country vulnerable to adversaries, especially China and Russia.<\/p>\n
Under the approved plan \u2013 which has been signed off on by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation \u2013 the new body will be built around the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO). As official documents point out, this isn\u2019t just a reorganization but a complete overhaul: CIRO will be turned into a central agency that brings together analysts, tech specialists, and operatives from both the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n
The agency is expected to roll out in July 2026, after the Japanese parliament\u2019s House of Councilors gives its final approval. Initial staffing will come to around 700 employees, though the government is projecting fast growth \u2013 according to cabinet sources, the headcount will double every two years as operations scale up. <\/p>\n
A key part of the preparations was CIRO director Kazuya Hara\u2019s recent trip to Washington. In a meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel, he laid out the planned structure and mission of the new agency in detail. Patel also reaffirmed Washington\u2019s intention to offer Tokyo full-spectrum support: \u201cWe\u2019re not just talking cybersecurity and counterintelligence. We\u2019ll be helping Japan out with espionage and counterterrorism as well \u2013 this is a strategic priority for our alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the first time since World War II, Japan is on the verge of setting up a centralized intelligence service. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has pushed through legislation to form a unified intelligence body. In her view, intelligence is currently spread out across dozens of ministries, leaving the country vulnerable to adversaries, especially China and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4465,4461,865,3261,1580,2780,4464,107,4462,1301,4460,60,4463,864,195],"class_list":["post-3342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-facts","tag-cabinet-intelligence-and-research-office","tag-ciro","tag-fbi","tag-intelligence-agency","tag-japan","tag-kash-patel-2","tag-kaza-hara","tag-usa","tag-kadza-hara","tag-kash-patel","tag-razvedyvatelnyj-organ","tag-ssha","tag-upravlenija-razvedki-i-issledovanij-kabineta-ministrov","tag-fbr","tag-japonija"],"yoast_head":"\n