TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party has approved plans to beef up the country’s intelligence capability, a party official said Friday, as the premier pushes ahead with a defense overhaul.
Newly empowered after a landslide victory in snap elections this month, Takaichi has vowed to make Japan “strong and prosperous” through key policy changes including in defense and intelligence.
The plans come as a months-long diplomatic row between Japan and China over comments Takaichi made on Taiwan rumbles on.
The proposal, agreed by the intelligence strategy headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), includes establishing an upgraded intelligence bureau and strengthening “foreign intelligence collection capabilities,” an LDP official told AFP.
It calls for a mandatory registration system for foreign agents — such as individuals and corporations lobbying within Japan on behalf of other governments — as part of counterintelligence measures.
The plan, which also includes a ban on the use of mobile phones in key government buildings, is expected to be submitted to Takaichi next week, the Asahi Shimbun and other local media reported.
“One of the central pillars of the major policy shift (under Takaichi) is a fundamental strengthening of intelligence,” the LDP’s policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi said at the meeting Thursday where plans were approved.
“Simply creating an organization on paper is utterly meaningless; the question is how we can turn it into a truly living, functioning body,” he said.
Separately, the LDP on Wednesday proposed changes to Japan’s stringent rules on exporting military equipment so as to enable exports of lethal weapons, local reports said.
The LDP official could not immediately confirm the proposal.
Takaichi has also said that she plans to revise three key national security policy documents this year to reflect the changing security environment.
The premier, seen as a China hawk before becoming premier in October, suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if Beijing sought to take Taiwan by force.
China, which regards the democratic island as part of its territory and has not ruled out force to annex it, was furious.
It summoned Tokyo’s ambassador, warned Chinese citizens against visiting Japan and in December J-15 jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked radar on Japanese aircraft in international waters near Okinawa, according to Japan.
Takaichi has vowed that Japan will steadfastly protect its territory, territorial waters and airspace.
Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi told the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that forces in Japan were seeking to “revive militarism.”
While she has said in parliament she will not change the rules, local media have reported that Takaichi is considering allowing US nuclear weapons into Japanese territory, a revision to the country’s non-nuclear principles of not producing, possessing or permitting the introduction of the weapons into the country.