A bill to establish the National Intelligence Agency, dubbed the "Japanese CIA," and the National Intelligence Council, which will serve as its command center, is on the verge of passing the Japanese House of Councillors (upper house).

According to local media reports on the 26th, the House of Councillors' Committee on Cabinet Affairs passed the bill to establish the National Intelligence Council, which will strengthen the command and control functions in the state's secret intelligence gathering activities.

Japan, which has not had an intelligence agency like South Korea's National Intelligence Service, is aiming to create the National Intelligence Council, composed of nine ministers including the Prime Minister as chairman, the Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to give it command and control functions in national intelligence gathering.

The Japanese government plans to launch the National Intelligence Bureau, which is compared to the "Japanese CIA," as the secretariat of the National Intelligence Council as early as July, with approximately 700 personnel.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi bows after the bill to establish the National Intelligence Bureau, dubbed the 'Japanese CIA,' passed the House of Representatives (lower house). [Yonhap News]

The National Intelligence Bureau will be able to request information collected by various agencies such as the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Public Security Intelligence Agency, and is expected to serve as a central "reservoir" where secret national intelligence flows.

The ruling coalition, composed of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party, aims to process the bill in a plenary session of the House of Councillors on the 27th.

In the House of Councillors' Committee on Cabinet Affairs, the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party submitted an amendment proposing the establishment of an independent body to report and publicize the activities of the National Intelligence Council annually to the Diet and to oversee its operations, in order to prevent human rights violations and ensure political neutrality following the strengthening of state secret intelligence management. However, this amendment was rejected.

The new bill for the National Intelligence Council and other related bodies passed the House of Representatives smoothly in April, with not only the ruling coalition parties such as the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party but also opposition parties such as the Chūseikairēnkai and the Democratic Party for the People, which had previously expressed negative views on the bill due to concerns over personal information infringement, casting affirmative votes.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed his enthusiasm, stating that "the strengthening of command and control functions through this bill is merely the first step in reform," according to the Asahi Shimbun, during the deliberations of the House of Councillors' Committee on Cabinet Affairs.

Starting with the establishment of the National Intelligence Council, Prime Minister Takaichi is also pushing for the enactment of a "Spy Prevention Law" that prohibits the illegal collection of confidential information from public and corporate entities, and the establishment of an "External Intelligence Agency" to gather information overseas.

Regarding the "Foreign Agents Registration Act," which mandates prior registration for lobbying activities on behalf of foreign governments or companies, Prime Minister Takaichi stated, "We need to consider a system in Japan to prevent undue foreign interference."