Japan plans to promote agent registration to prevent foreign influence recruitment

In order to prevent improper interference by foreign forces, the Sanae government of Takaichi, Japan, is actively developing "legislation related to espionage prevention." It proposed specific plans for the first time at an expert meeting held at the Prime Minister's Residence today. One of them is to introduce a "foreign agent registration system" that will require those who engage in lobbying and other activities for the benefit of foreign governments to register as "foreign agents" and establish penalties for malicious interference in Japanese elections, public opinion, and policy formulation. The Japanese government hopes to introduce relevant bills to the General Assembly as soon as next year.

As China and other foreign forces use social media to spread false information and interfere in elections in democratic countries, Japan has begun to build a legal system to respond. The Gao City Government formed a coalition government with the Japan Reform Association in October last year and included the formulation of an espionage prevention law in the governing agreement. This time, it proposed a specific system design for the first time. Based on the discussion results of the expert meeting, the Japanese government will lead the legalization work with the National Police Agency, aiming to introduce a bill in the ordinary Diet in 2027.

Traditional espionage activities mainly involve stealing national secrets, collecting sensitive intelligence, or engaging in sabotage operations. Japan's current "Specified Secrets Protection Act", "Unfair Competition Prevention Act" and "Criminal Code" have relevant regulations. However, there is still a lack of complete legal system for the "influence operations" in which foreign forces conceal their identities and influence Japanese public opinion and policy decisions through political lobbying, information manipulation, etc.

The government cited three types of behavior that may involve malicious interference, including concealing relations with foreign governments, contacting politicians or civil servants to intervene in policy formulation, influencing public opinion and elections through information release, and providing money or other benefits to prompt the government to change policies.

The new system will require political consultants, think tank researchers and advertising company related persons who engage in lobbying for the interests of foreign governments to register their foreign agent status to make their activities transparent and explore the establishment of criminal penalties for malicious interference such as coercion.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a press conference today that in the face of geopolitical competition, cyber attacks on important government and private information, and the spread of false information that attempts to manipulate public opinion, it is of great significance to strengthen intelligence functions. He emphasized that preventing improper interference by foreign forces is "of extremely great significance," but the strengthening of intelligence functions must be based on the understanding and trust of the people.

In fact, during the Japanese House of Representatives election in February this year, there were cases where Chinese forces were suspected of manipulating public opinion through social platforms. Nikkei analyzed data from social platform

In terms of international systems, the United States enacted the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as early as 1938, the United Kingdom implemented the relevant system in July 2025, and France introduced similar regulations in October of the same year. The Japanese government will refer to European and American systems to discuss registration objects, activity reporting obligations and the scope of penalties for violations.

However, the relevant laws have also raised concerns about restricting freedom of speech and academic exchanges. The proposals put forward by the Liberal Democratic Party in August this year also required the government to clearly define foreign forces and inappropriate interference to avoid the suppression of legitimate diplomatic, economic, academic, interviewing and news reporting activities.