Japan’s closest southern neighbors, Taiwan and the Philippines, should take note of Tokyo’s newly established National Intelligence Council.
The Diet, Japan’s parliament, approved its launch on May 27. The new agency centralizes the country’s many intelligence units and is directly chaired by the prime minister.
Efforts to optimize Japan’s intelligence efforts have long been raised by Tokyo’s allies, especially its largest security partner, the US. To date, Japan’s intelligence relies on fragmented data across different ministries, without a single organization handling and distributing information.
This will be the first for Japan since the end of World War II. Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has said that establishing such an agency is urgent in tackling foreign influence operations, including the spread of disinformation, which constitutes a threat that can shake national security.
She made similar remarks pertinent to Taiwan concerning Japan’s national security in November. Takaichi responded to an opposition legislator in parliament that a Chinese attack on Taiwan aimed at seizing the country by force could constitute a “survival-threatening situation.” Such a scenario could warrant the deployment of the Japanese military, the self-defense forces, to a cross-strait conflict.
Worth noting was the multipartisan support that this legislation has received. Apart from the Japanese Communist Party, almost all major parties have voted to approve the new intelligence agency.
Even the left-leaning, often portrayed as China-friendly main opposition party, the Centrist Reform Alliance, agreed to sign off on its establishment. The parliamentary support also reflects Japanese public sentiment. Polling by Jiji Press conducted right before the parliamentary vote found that over 39% of Japanese were in favor of the new agency, while 19% opposed it.
The new spy agency has received direct international backing. The FBI has endorsed Japan’s new agency and believes that such centralized efforts are key in responding to increased threats from China, Russia, and North Korea. These three authoritarian actors continue to not only infiltrate and carry out influence operations in Japan, but also in Taiwan and the Philippines.
Taiwan has long been ground zero for Chinese disinformation campaigns, with 2025 experiencing over 2.6 million daily cyber intrusion attempts according to Taiwan’s National Security Bureau. The Philippines has also experienced a sharp surge in Chinese influence operations on government officials to subvert the Washington-Manila alliance and to shape upcoming elections in boosting pro-Beijing candidates.
With the establishment of a centralized intelligence agency, Japan can also take the lead in strengthening regional efforts to counter disinformation. All neighboring countries in the First Island Chain face common attacks from a single actor, China.
Philippine foreign policy expert and De La Salle University Professor Renato Cruz De Castro believes that Japan has the financial and technological resources to assist Taiwanese and Filipino intelligence agencies to counter the CCP and MSS's covert operations in Tokyo, Manila, and Taipei.
This is a critical step in synchronizing with the already robust increase in defense cooperation, to other crucial areas needed in deterring and eliminating foreign authoritarian influence in domestic democratic vulnerabilities.
Beijing has also doubled down on its smear campaign against Japan. Despite Japan being a role model for regional peace for over seven decades since the end of World War II, China has recently fabricated accusations around Japanese neo-militarism and becoming a revisionist power. Its foreign ministry went on a charade to accuse Japan of reviving the pre-war imperial special higher police (tokko) through the establishment of this new intelligence agency.
China’s public disinformation campaign against Japan does not stop at disinformation. It has deployed its senior leaders, diplomats, state media, and various other propaganda channels to paint Japan as a regional disruptor of peace. What is ironic is that Beijing is accusing Japan of what it is actually doing to its neighbors. China has used military and gray zone intimidation tactics to encroach on the surrounding waters from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan.
However, Japan has not stood idle to false Chinese accusations. Japanese Defense Minister Koizumi Shinjiro rebutted claims of Japan’s “new-militarism” at the annual IISS Shangri-La Dialogue at the end of last month.
In front of defense ministers and military leaders from around the world that gathered at the Singaporean forum, Koizumi called out how the Chinese PLA lacks transparency and the hypocrisy that Beijing labels Tokyo as being a revisionist power, when China has built over hundreds of large-scale nuclear weapons and strategic bombers, neither of which Japan possesses. Koizumi has emphasized that Japan’s military is built upon transparency, a direct contrast to China, and that the country will continue to strengthen regional alliances.
The new intelligence agency can achieve both. It will enhance Japan’s efforts in pushing back against fake authoritarian narratives, while also strengthening cooperation with regional partners. Given the number of attempted Chinese cyberattacks that Taiwan receives, this could also open up more collaboration where Taipei can share its digital know-how in combatting disinformation.
Tokyo’s new spy agency could launch operations as early as July. It's expected to have an initial intelligence staff of 700.
It aims to bring together career-track government employees, security analysts, AI and tech specialists, cyber experts, and several private sector professionals. It will transform the existing Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office into a central hub where the new agency will work to unify data from the different ministries, with a primary focus on counterespionage, gray-zone operations, and tackling misinformation. These are all critical areas where Taiwan is working to combat China.
As long noted by security analysts, China’s long game is to subjugate Taiwan through gray zone tactics. It prefers to use gray zone warfare, alongside economic coercion, and other forms of hybrid warfare to force a takeover without firing a single bullet. It is for Japan and other partners to be clear-eyed when it comes to such threats and fight back against China’s fake and defeatist narratives.
Rath Wang is a political commentator based in Taipei focusing on Taiwan’s politics, media, civil society, and key issues influencing Taiwan’s future. He is a media producer and host of current affairs talk shows and podcasts and has worked on political campaigns and lived in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and the US.
