Japan’s 5 Intelligence Branches – Cloaks, Daggars and Spies, Oh My!
Japan has 5 intelligence branches. They are:
1. the Cabinet Intelligence Research Office,
2. the Defense Intelligence Headquarters of the Defense Ministry,
3. the National Police Agency’s Security Bureau,
4. the Public Security Intelligence Agency of the Justice Ministry,
5. the Foreign Ministry’s Intelligence and Analysis Service
There are some 10,000 government officials working in the field.
The Foreign ministry is well-established through Japan’s embassies overseas.
The Justice Ministry has the best domestic intelligence.
The Defense Ministry has signal intelligence expertise – Japan discovered the Soviet’s role in downing a Korean Airlines flight in 1983 through signal intelligence.
Recently, Japan’s intelligence agencies failed in 2001 to recognize the son of Kim Jong Il.
In 2004 a Japanese cryptologist committed suicide when caught being blackmailed in a honey trap in Shanghai.
To become a secret agent in Japan:
1. expertise in field – U.S. politics, language capabilities, connections
2. Japanese citizenship
3. finding the link at the various agencies’ websites.
Are Japanese spies active overseas now? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.
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