Japan is launching its first centralized intelligence agency since WWII. Here’s why

Japan is launching a new centralized intelligence body for the first time since World War II – a controversial move that some fear deviates from Tokyo’s pacifist ideals, but one others say is much needed in a country so riddled with security weaknesses it has been called a “paradise for spies.”

The National Intelligence Bureau will formally launch on Friday, replacing previous structures criticized as disjointed and ineffective – and laying the foundation, experts say, for broader changes that could include an anti-spy law and a new external foreign intelligence agency similar to the CIA in the US, or MI6 in the UK.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi nodded to these ambitions on Monday, saying: “These measures are merely the first step in intelligence reform.”

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