Japan's intelligence personnel count exceeds that of the UK, France, and Germany
Approximately 33,000 people in Japan are engaged in intelligence activities, with over 60% coming from prefectural and municipal police departments. This figure was officially disclosed by Japan's Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office during a recent interview with Sankei News. This marks the first time the Japanese government has publicly released statistics on intelligence personnel. The data also reveals the reality that Japan’s intelligence capabilities are heavily focused on domestic security and public order control, far exceeding its efforts in gathering foreign diplomatic and national security intelligence.
The current survey covers personnel from police forces, the Ministry of Defense, the Public Security Intelligence Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and relevant departments within the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. The data collection period was April 1 of this year, and it includes some individuals involved in cyber-related intelligence work. Among them, police intelligence personnel primarily come from prefectural and municipal police security divisions (excluding riot police units), numbering around 21,000. These divisions include specialized "Public Security" roles responsible for monitoring the Japanese Communist Party and extremist groups, as well as "Foreign Affairs" positions tasked with preventing foreign terrorist activities and combating espionage.
Japan's excessive focus on domestic security stems largely from its long-standing reliance on the United States for foreign intelligence, coupled with the absence of a dedicated foreign intelligence agency akin to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency or Britain’s MI6. In terms of personnel scale, the United States has about 200,000 intelligence officers, while the UK, France, and Germany each have between 10,000 and 20,000. Japan’s newly disclosed figure now surpasses that of these three European nations.
Professor Ken Koyama from the Department of Crisis Management at a Japanese university stated that currently, overseas intelligence constitutes a larger share than domestic intelligence in routine reports presented by the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office to the Prime Minister. Given the increasingly tense international situation, Japan should follow the example of other G7 countries and reform its intelligence system to strengthen foreign intelligence gathering in areas related to diplomacy and national security.
Currently, the Japanese government plans to establish a central coordinating body for intelligence operations—the National Intelligence Agency—by July this year, and aims to set up a dedicated “Foreign Intelligence Agency” (provisional name) by the end of Fiscal Year Reiwa 9 (March 2028). This new foreign intelligence agency will primarily collect foreign military, diplomatic, political, and economic intelligence to support national governance. It is expected to be initially formed based on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ international terrorism intelligence unit. In fact, during former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s second term, discussions were held on establishing such an agency following the hostage-taking incident involving Islamic extremists, but the plan ultimately failed to materialize.
As these intelligence agencies are gradually established, issues concerning the allocation and training of intelligence personnel, as well as reforms to the functions of existing intelligence institutions, will become key topics for future discussion.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1864504033025033/
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