Japan's parliament on Wednesday, 27 May approved legislation to establish a National Intelligence Council, centralising the country's fragmented intelligence apparatus in response to growing overseas security threats. The move marks one of the most significant overhauls of Japan's intelligence architecture in decades.

What the New Law Does

The legislation creates two new bodies: the National Intelligence Council, to be chaired by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi along with nine other cabinet members, and its secretariat, the National Intelligence Bureau. The bureau will coordinate intelligence gathered by the National Police Agency, the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, and other organisations, with authority to compel them to share information. According to reports, the government could establish both bodies as early as July and convene an expert panel to draft counter-espionage legislation.

Takaichi's Security Agenda

Establishing the council is a cornerstone of Prime Minister Takaichi's governing agenda. She has argued that Japan faces what her government describes as the most complex security environment since the end of the Second World War. Beyond the council, Takaichi has called for a system to register foreign government actors engaged in lobbying activities and has stressed the need for Japan to build its own external intelligence agency — steps that would require further legislation.

Democratic Oversight Concerns

The law has drawn criticism because it contains no provisions for parliamentary oversight of intelligence activities. Critics argue the legislation could infringe on civil liberties and risk politicising intelligence work. The founding party of the Centrist Reform Alliance, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, opposed the bill in the upper house on precisely these grounds, even as the alliance itself backed the measure in the House of Representatives in April.

Legislative Path

The bill cleared the House of Representatives in April with support from the Centrist Reform Alliance, the chamber's largest opposition bloc. Its passage through the upper house was more contentious, with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan breaking ranks to vote against it. The approval nonetheless paves the way for a broader set of intelligence reform bills expected to follow.

What Comes Next

With the council framework now law, attention shifts to the expert panel on counter-espionage and the prospect of a foreign lobbying registration regime — both of which will require fresh legislative rounds. How Japan balances expanded intelligence powers against civil liberties protections is likely to remain a live political debate as those bills take shape.