Japan's strengthening of intelligence capabilities raises regional security concerns

The Japanese government’s expert meeting aimed at strengthening intelligence capabilities held its first meeting on the 28th. The Gao City Government has used so-called security issues to step up the improvement of the top-level design of national-level intelligence and continue to break through post-war security constraints. Related trends are causing concern.

What are the intentions behind Japan’s continuous strengthening of its so-called foreign intelligence work? What impact will it have on the future situation in the region?

Meng Mingming, assistant researcher at the Institute of Japan, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: We have to see that these moves by Japan are a combination of punches. The Gao City Government has continuously strengthened its external intelligence activities, with the purpose of accelerating dedicated defense under the guise of national normalization and building a key jigsaw puzzle of a substantive war preparation system. Behind it, there are several clear strategic intentions.

The first point is to strengthen all-round intelligence capabilities internally and lay the foundation for it to become a fully capable country in terms of information and intelligence. In recent years, Japan's defense budget has surged and it has vigorously developed offensive weapons. However, Japan believes that without independent overseas intelligence and target designation capabilities, these current hardware capabilities are far from enough. Therefore, Japan is eager to build its own central intelligence agency, such as the National Intelligence Council, and build the National Intelligence Agency as the Japanese version of the CIA. Through these practices, it has established independent intelligence investigation capabilities at home and abroad.

Embedded in the U.S. and Western intelligence networks, Japan wants to act as a "pawn"

Meng Mingming, assistant researcher at the Institute of Japan, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: The second point is externally. The strategic plan behind it is to embed deeply into the intelligence networks of the United States and the West in exchange for voice and gaming chips within the alliance. By strengthening its external intelligence functions, Japan attempts to integrate more deeply into intelligence organizations such as the US-UK "Five Eyes" as a non-staff member, and actively act as a pawn for the US. The Gao City Government also hopes to use this to prove its irreplaceability to the United States in exchange for strategic benefits.

Japan's attack on post-war peace system exacerbates regional security dilemma

Meng Mingming, assistant researcher at the Institute of Japan, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: From the perspective of harmful effects, on the one hand, at the regional security level, this approach will seriously undermine Japan’s defense bottom line and sharply push up the security dilemma in East Asia. Japan's intelligence activities are likely to become increasingly radical and cutting-edge, further damaging mutual trust among regional countries. On the other hand, from an institutional and historical perspective, this was a serious setback for Japan’s peace system after the war. This huge intelligence machine, which is directly controlled by the Prime Minister's Office and lacks transparent supervision, has also triggered strong concerns in Japan about the revival of the "super high class" spy politics before World War II. It is likely to be used by right-wing forces to suppress domestic anti-war voices and accelerate the rightward shift of the entire Japanese society.