Spy Laws Debate Exposes a Split on Intelligence

On January 20, one week before the Lower House election campaign officially began, a spy case came to light.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Public Security Bureau identified a former employee of Russia's Trade Representation in Japan on suspicion of obtaining confidential information from a machine tool manufacturer in the greater Tokyo area. Authorities believe he was working as a spy for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. He returned to Russia after refusing Japan's request to appear for questioning.

Cases like this are widely seen as only the tip of the iceberg. Relative to its size, Japan is often described as lacking sufficient personnel, budget, and legal framework necessary for intelligence work. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration has begun moving to strengthen those capabilities, making intelligence policy a point of debate in the Lower House election.

The Six Eyes?

In its campaign platform, the Liberal Democratic Party pledged to "fundamentally strengthen intelligence capabilities." It called for establishing an external intelligence agency and developing legislation to block foreign interference.

Its coalition partner, Nippon Ishin no Kai, has broadly aligned with that push. The party has set a goal of bringing Japan up to a level that would allow it to join the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing framework among five English-speaking countries.

Catching Up with the G7

Several opposition parties also included stronger intelligence capabilities in their campaign pledges.

The Democratic Party for the People said it would bring Japan's intelligence functions "up to the level of the G7." It called for the drafting of an intelligence capability enhancement act to lay the foundations for intelligence work. In addition, it argued for establishing national institutions related to intelligence activities.

Sanseito and the Japan Conservative Party, meanwhile, explicitly stated that they would develop an anti-espionage law.

Unclear Strategies and Opposition

The Centrist Reform Alliance included a pledge to "strengthen a cross-ministerial intelligence framework" in its platform. Inside the party, however, some lawmakers urged caution about enacting an anti-spy law. "There is a risk it could lead to serious human rights violations," said Satoshi Honjo, the party's co-chair of the Policy Research Council. With that pushback, the party's approach to strengthening intelligence capabilities remained vague.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Communist Party said it opposed "an anti-spy law that would place citizens under surveillance and violate fundamental human rights." The Social Democratic Party also argued against such a law, saying it would "lead to an arbitrary expansion of 'state secrets' and infringe on freedom of speech and expression."

Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima holds a news conference on February 8 in Chuo Ward, Tokyo.

For many years, Japan has relied heavily on intelligence supplied from abroad, particularly from the United States, as well as from other information-sharing counterparts. In the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War, Washington argued it had evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and the Japanese government politically backed the US-led intervention on that premise. Iraq ultimately had no such weapons.

With that lesson in mind, Japan is once again having to confront a basic question: what should its intelligence posture be? And if intelligence helps set the premises for decisions in diplomacy and national security, what safeguards and what capabilities are needed?

(Read the article in Japanese.)

Author: Shusuke Takenouchi, The Sankei Shimbun