News Japan to establish National Intelligence Council

Last Thursday, Japan's House of Representatives passed a bill to establish a National Intelligence Council (国家情報会議 Kokka Jōhō Kaigi), in a move aimed at strengthening the government's ability to gather and analyse information. The council would be chaired by the prime minister and serve as a kind of command centre. It would oversee the collection and analysis of intelligence to support policy decisions, according to the bill. A new National Intelligence Bureau would also be created to serve as its secretariat.


There was pushback from opposition parties during deliberations. At their insistence, a supplementary resolution was added to the government-backed legislation. It says personal information and privacy should not be unnecessarily infringed, and also that intelligence activities must not compromise political neutrality.