Japan Is Building the Closest Thing It’s Had to a CIA Since World War II

Japan is creating a vast centralized intelligence agency for the first time since World War ii, the New York Times reported on July 13. It is the latest sign of the nation’s dramatic emergence from decades of postwar military and strategic restraint.

Following Japan’s ruthless wartime conduct and ultimate defeat in World War ii, the United States occupied the nation and imposed sweeping restrictions designed to prevent a resurgence of militarism. Article 9 of Japan’s new Constitution became the centerpiece of this postwar order, banning war as a means for Japan to settle international disputes.

Many institutions associated with Japan’s wartime security state were also dismantled during the occupation, including Tokkō, the feared police and intelligence force responsible for targeting critics of the government. In the decades that followed, Japan never created a centralized foreign intelligence agency like the U.S.’s Central Intelligence Agency or Britain’s MI6; instead, its intelligence capabilities were scattered among competing government bodies.

The fragmented model left police, defense officials and diplomats gathering and evaluating information without sharing findings across departments. It has left the nation vulnerable to foreign interference, as highlighted by a July 12 report exposing Russian operatives who infiltrated Japan to acquire sanctioned weapons components.

As threats from Russia, China and North Korea continue to intensify, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has accelerated a years-long shift toward a more assertive security posture. The shift has included:

• Record defense spending
• The development of offensive strike capabilities for the first time in the postwar era
• A dramatic loosening of military exports and defense cooperation

Now, Takaichi is adding a centralized intelligence agency to that transformation.

‘A Giant Step’

In recent months, the Japanese have held closed-door meetings with officials from Australia, Germany and the U.S., seeking consultation about how to make the agency a world-class organization.

It is set to go live in December, armed with an annual budget of roughly $407 million. It will employ hundreds of specialists in fields ranging from cybersecurity and technology to overseas intelligence gathering. It will bring greater coordination to the work of some 33,000 intelligence personnel spread across the government, including within the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Defense Ministry and the police.

The plan also calls for the founding of a foreign investment review body and an intelligence council to serve as a central command hub. The prime minister will oversee the council’s operations.

Japanese leaders believe the nation’s intelligence capabilities have “been frozen in time for decades,” Australian ambassador to Japan Andrew Shearer told the Times. “It’s a big thing that the prime minister has chosen to make it a priority and that she is investing the political capital to get it done.”

“This is a giant step in the direction of having a fully integrated and robust intelligence community,” said Richard Samuels, an mit political science professor and author of a history of Japan’s intelligence community.

‘Disregard for the Lessons of History’

Some Japanese policymakers are concerned about the move. Mizuho Fukushima, leader of Japan’s opposition Social Democratic Party, said the absence of a dedicated intelligence agency over the past 80 years was a decision “rooted in Japan’s commitment to being a peaceful nation that renounces war and the result of lessons learned from its own history.”

She said the new organization “infringes upon the right to privacy and other rights and paves the way for a surveillance society.”

Concern abroad has been even more pronounced, particularly among nations that suffered under the brutality of Imperial Japan’s wartime fanaticism.

The Global Times, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, called the new agency a “key step for Japan’s right-wing forces” to “accelerate remilitarization.” The publication wrote:

Such unchecked intelligence centralization is highly susceptible to becoming a political tool for right-wing governments to suppress dissent, potentially leading to a repeat of the pre-war nightmare of secret police rule. …

Japan’s revival of a centralized intelligence system reminiscent of the Tokkō is, in essence, a blatant challenge to the postwar international order and a gross disregard for the lessons of history. It not only severely erodes the foundations of peace within Japan but is also bound to significantly heighten security risks in the region.

Since China operates the world’s most extensive and intrusive intelligence and surveillance apparatus—and is in the midst of a dramatic military expansion while increasingly coercing its neighbors—its lecturing Japan is a masterclass in hypocrisy.

Even so, Japan’s decision to create a centralized intelligence agency—and its broader departure from postwar restraints—truly is a consequential development that merits serious attention.

‘Kings of the East’

In 1971, when Japan was still deeply committed to pacifism and firmly beneath America’s security umbrella, the late educator Herbert W. Armstrong made a bold forecast: Japan would one day return to full militarism. He wrote:

Japan today has no military establishment. But we should not lose sight of the fact that Japan has become so powerful economically that it could build a military force of very great power very rapidly.
—Plain Truth, March 1971

For decades, Mr. Armstrong’s warning may have struck many students of geopolitics as alarmist. But now, as Japan’s regional threats intensify, as American influence wanes, and as Takaichi and other leaders steadily dismantle Japan’s pacifist framework, that warning is increasingly vindicated.

How could Mr. Armstrong have issued such a prescient warning? Because his analysis was built on specific biblical prophecies. Scripture shows that a final world war is approaching. One of the major powers will be an alliance of Asian countries. Revelation 16:12 calls this grouping “the kings of the east.” Revelation 9:16 says it will field a staggering 200 million troops.

Ezekiel 38:1-2 show that this alliance will be led by Russia, and verse 6 lists ancient names indicating the people of modern Japan, showing that this great nation will be part of the Asian alliance.

Japan today is alarmed by the aggression of Russia and China, and it is remilitarizing in large part because of that alarm. But these passages show that Japan will join this Russian-led “kings of the east” bloc.

Japan’s emergence from decades of military and strategic restraint is crucial to watch because it is setting the stage for that prophesied Asian confederacy to become a force of stunningly devastating power. Each Japanese move toward remilitarization represents a step closer to that colossal army and the final world war.

But there is cause for hope.

Jesus Christ said the final world war would be so destructive that, unlike any conflict before it, it would threaten the survival of humanity itself (Matthew 24:21-22). But then He added a key detail at the end of verse 22: “[T]hose days shall be shortened.”

The war will be interrupted! Before mankind entirely obliterates itself, Christ will cut the conflict short.

He will then begin the work of restoring humanity, teaching the survivors to reject the hatred, greed and destructive impulses that have long shaped human affairs. As explained in our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy, “There will still exist those who haven’t submitted to God’s law.” But God will continue working with them until they recognize that “God’s system is the only one that will yield such blessings in life!”

Under Christ’s perfect government, the world will enter an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity, extending to the peoples of Japan, Russia, the United States, China and every nation.

To learn more, request your free copy of Russia and China in Prophecy.