ウィキリークスから提供された在日アメリカ大使館の香典によると、福田・麻生政権にかけて、日本政府が戦後初の本格的な諜報機関の立ち上げを検討し始めたとのこと。シドニー・モーニングヘラルドなどオーストラリアのメディアが情報を流している。
以下はそのことを報じるジャパンタイムズの記事。
"Cable leak: Japan has spy agency
SYDNEY (Kyodo) Japan has established a secret foreign intelligence unit for the first time since the war to spy on China and North Korea and gather information to prevent a terrorist attack, according to an Australian report Monday citing a classified U.S. cable obtained by WikiLeaks.
The Sydney Morning Herald and other Fairfax newspapers said the cable provided exclusively to them shows a spy unit has been created under the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office and modeled on such Western intelligence services as the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6.
According to the report, a discussion in October 2008 between the former head of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Research and Intelligence, Randall Fort, and Director Hideshi Mitani of Japan's agency revealed a shift in Japanese attitudes for the first time since World War II and signaled that a having a "human intelligence collection capability" was a priority.
A secret cable to Washington by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo indicates the decision was made by the then Liberal Democratic Party government led by Yasuo Fukuda until September 2008 and upheld by his successor, Taro Aso, whose party was defeated in the August 2009 election that brought the Democratic Party of Japan to power after decades of LDP rule.
"The decision has been made to go very slowly with this process as the Japanese realize that they lack knowledge, experience, and assets/officers. A training process for new personnel will be started soon," the embassy told Washington in the leaked cable.
The cable also revealed Japan's lack of information on North Korea, with Mitani frankly admitting to his U.S. counterpart that Japan's best insights into Kim Jong Il were through his former sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, who had published a memoir."
ウィキリークスの情報はニューヨークタイムズ、ガーディアン、シュピーゲルなどに提供されたはず。
今回オーストラリアから出てきたのをみると、基本はアングロサクソン系のメディアに出しているのかなと思われる。
当然メディア関係者には諜報機関のメンバーと重複するものも多いといわれているので、この情報は英米の関係者による牽制かもしれない。
今後も注意していこう。
なおAFPも二日前に伝えている。下記に示しておく。
"Japan building foreign spy service: WikiLeaks
(AFP) – 2 days ago
TOKYO ― Japan is setting up its first fully-fledged post-war foreign spy service, modelled on the CIA and Britain's MI6, according to a classified US cable obtained by WikiLeaks, a report said Monday.
The new intelligence service aims to spy on China and North Korea and to gather information to prevent terrorist attacks, said Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, citing a US cable WikiLeaks exclusively provided to the daily.
The espionage unit is being created under the wing of Japan's top intelligence agency, the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (Naicho), which reports to the prime minister, the Herald said.
Then-Naicho director Hideshi Mitani revealed in 2008 that a "human intelligence collection capability" was a priority, in talks with then head of the US State Department's bureau of intelligence and research, Randall Fort.
Two former Japanese prime ministers of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso, had kicked off the project, according to a secret cable to Washington from the US embassy in Tokyo.
"The decision has been made to go very slowly with this process as the Japanese realise that they lack knowledge, experience, and assets/officers," the US embassy cable said, according to the Herald.
"A training process for new personnel will be started soon."
Japanese officials had told Fort that Japan's most pressing intelligence priorities were "China and North Korea, as well as on collecting intelligence information to prevent terrorist attacks".
Fort had urged Japanese officials to tap "underutilised assets" in the worldwide network of Japanese businesses and trading companies.
An expert on intelligence issues in Japan, who asked not to be named, told AFP that Japan does not yet have an operational "human intelligence branch".
Japan does not seek to recruit foreign nationals as agents or informants, the expert said, instead relying on Japanese businessmen and journalists abroad to gather intelligence, paying them out of "secret funds" controlled by the foreign ministry and cabinet office.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »"
以下はそのことを報じるジャパンタイムズの記事。
"Cable leak: Japan has spy agency
SYDNEY (Kyodo) Japan has established a secret foreign intelligence unit for the first time since the war to spy on China and North Korea and gather information to prevent a terrorist attack, according to an Australian report Monday citing a classified U.S. cable obtained by WikiLeaks.
The Sydney Morning Herald and other Fairfax newspapers said the cable provided exclusively to them shows a spy unit has been created under the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office and modeled on such Western intelligence services as the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6.
According to the report, a discussion in October 2008 between the former head of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Research and Intelligence, Randall Fort, and Director Hideshi Mitani of Japan's agency revealed a shift in Japanese attitudes for the first time since World War II and signaled that a having a "human intelligence collection capability" was a priority.
A secret cable to Washington by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo indicates the decision was made by the then Liberal Democratic Party government led by Yasuo Fukuda until September 2008 and upheld by his successor, Taro Aso, whose party was defeated in the August 2009 election that brought the Democratic Party of Japan to power after decades of LDP rule.
"The decision has been made to go very slowly with this process as the Japanese realize that they lack knowledge, experience, and assets/officers. A training process for new personnel will be started soon," the embassy told Washington in the leaked cable.
The cable also revealed Japan's lack of information on North Korea, with Mitani frankly admitting to his U.S. counterpart that Japan's best insights into Kim Jong Il were through his former sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, who had published a memoir."
ウィキリークスの情報はニューヨークタイムズ、ガーディアン、シュピーゲルなどに提供されたはず。
今回オーストラリアから出てきたのをみると、基本はアングロサクソン系のメディアに出しているのかなと思われる。
当然メディア関係者には諜報機関のメンバーと重複するものも多いといわれているので、この情報は英米の関係者による牽制かもしれない。
今後も注意していこう。
なおAFPも二日前に伝えている。下記に示しておく。
"Japan building foreign spy service: WikiLeaks
(AFP) – 2 days ago
TOKYO ― Japan is setting up its first fully-fledged post-war foreign spy service, modelled on the CIA and Britain's MI6, according to a classified US cable obtained by WikiLeaks, a report said Monday.
The new intelligence service aims to spy on China and North Korea and to gather information to prevent terrorist attacks, said Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, citing a US cable WikiLeaks exclusively provided to the daily.
The espionage unit is being created under the wing of Japan's top intelligence agency, the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (Naicho), which reports to the prime minister, the Herald said.
Then-Naicho director Hideshi Mitani revealed in 2008 that a "human intelligence collection capability" was a priority, in talks with then head of the US State Department's bureau of intelligence and research, Randall Fort.
Two former Japanese prime ministers of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso, had kicked off the project, according to a secret cable to Washington from the US embassy in Tokyo.
"The decision has been made to go very slowly with this process as the Japanese realise that they lack knowledge, experience, and assets/officers," the US embassy cable said, according to the Herald.
"A training process for new personnel will be started soon."
Japanese officials had told Fort that Japan's most pressing intelligence priorities were "China and North Korea, as well as on collecting intelligence information to prevent terrorist attacks".
Fort had urged Japanese officials to tap "underutilised assets" in the worldwide network of Japanese businesses and trading companies.
An expert on intelligence issues in Japan, who asked not to be named, told AFP that Japan does not yet have an operational "human intelligence branch".
Japan does not seek to recruit foreign nationals as agents or informants, the expert said, instead relying on Japanese businessmen and journalists abroad to gather intelligence, paying them out of "secret funds" controlled by the foreign ministry and cabinet office.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »"