Japanese PM wants to create intelligence agency like the CIA
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has instructed Cabinet Secretary General Minoru Kihara to study strengthening intelligence capabilities. During the election campaign, Takaichi advocated the creation of an intelligence agency like the CIA.
To this end, the ruling Liberal Dehmocratic Party (LDP) and the Japan Renewal Society Party, which formed a coalition, agreed earlier to work on the creation of a national intelligence agency.
“The recent coalition agreement with the Japan Renewal Society party provides for the inclusion of the creation of a national intelligence agency during the next parliamentary session in 2026,” Kihara said at a press conference.
“We believe that strengthening the functions of national intelligence is an urgent need to protect Japan’s national interests and ensure the safety of its citizens in the most difficult security situation since World War II.
The prime minister instructed me, together with the relevant ministers, to consider strengthening the government’s intelligence functions,” Kihara said when asked whether he had been instructed by the prime minister to study the establishment of an intelligence agency, Yomiuri newspaper reported citing sources.
According to the newspaper, intelligence functions are now performed by a number of structures under the office of the cabinet of ministers, the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the police and the Justice Ministry. If necessary, they provide information to the National Security Secretariat, which ensures the work of the National Security Council.
However, this structure was considered insufficient, so it is planned to create an intelligence directorate, where employees of the currently existing intelligence structures from various agencies will be seconded.
The head of this new unit should be promoted to the level of secretary of the Security Council and will be directly subordinate to the prime minister and the secretary general of the cabinet. Also, this agency will be given the authority to give instructions to various ministries and agencies, Yomiuri notes.
