Japan Enlists US Help to Build Its Own CIA

Japan is racing to build something it hasn't had since its wartime spy force was dismantled: a central intelligence agency. The New York Times reports that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pushing through a new, US-style hub that will pull together Japan's scattered intelligence arms and tighten defenses against espionage, cyberattacks, and foreign influence from rivals like China, Russia, and North Korea. The roughly $407 million agency, due to launch by December, will coordinate some 33,000 people now spread across ministries, and sit at the core of a broader security revamp that includes looser rules on weapons exports and tougher screening of foreign investment.

Behind the scenes, Tokyo has been quietly seeking advice from the US, Australia, and Germany on everything from cyberdefense to how to get notoriously siloed bureaucracies to share information. But the plan is running into resistance at home and abroad: China accuses Takaichi of reviving militarism, and Japanese critics warn of privacy intrusions and a slide toward a surveillance state, invoking memories of the prewar police known as Tokko. For a deeper look at the politics, history, and foreign help shaping Japan's new spy apparatus, read the full story by Javier C. Hernandez. The Times had a separate story on Sunday revealing that Russia has sent dozens of spies to Japan in recent years, as part of an effort to buy weapons components and evade sanctions.