The is the national

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objective ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is administered by the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

, and is tasked with internal security and espionage against threats to Japanese national security based on the Subversive Activities Prevention Act and the Act Regarding the Control of Organizations Which Committed Indiscriminate Mass Murder.Public Security Investigation Agency.
Retrieved on January 5, 2008.
Retrieved on January 5, 2008. Any investigation conducted by the agency needs to go through the

Public Security Examination Commission In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

(PSEC) in order to determine if there is a justification to investigate and clamp down on an organization's activities.https://www.stimson.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/Tatsumi_%20Japan%27s_Security_Policy_Infrastructure_Final_Version.pdf As the national agency with the role to collect intelligence information, the PSIA contributes to Japanese government policy by providing relevant organizations with necessary foreign and domestic data (collected through investigations and intelligence activities) on subversive organizations. It is also known that the PSIA is responsible for conducting surveillance and intelligence-related work on

Zainichi Koreans comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

ese soil. The PSIA's findings are released publicly through the annually-published Naigai Jousei no Kaiko to Tenbo (Situation in Public Security inside and outside Japan and their prospect) as well as regularly-published Kokusai Terrorism Youran (International Terrorism Report).

History

The Public Security Intelligence Agency was established with the enforcement of the Subversive Activities Prevention Law on 21 July 1952, initially known as the Public Security Investigation Agency before it changed to its current name. The PSIA took over the role of the SIB, which was established by the Allied Forces during the occupation. Most of the recruits came from the disbanded Tokumu Kikan and led by officials from the pre-occupation Ministry of Justice. Initially focusing on threats from far left groups such as the

Japanese Red Army The was a militant communist organization active from 1971 to 2001. It was designated a terrorist organization by Japan and the United States. The JRA was founded by Fusako Shigenobu and Tsuyoshi Okudaira in February 1971 and was most active i ...

during the days of the Cold War, it began to conduct intelligence work on the

Aum Shinrikyo , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year. The group says tha ...

after the

Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway The was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro (then ''Teito Rapid ...

in 1995, with criticism that the PSIA did not monitor the group, especially with their attempt to acquire and stockpile biological weapons on Japanese soil.Japan's Growing Intelligence Capabilities, Andrew Oros.
Retrieved on June 9, 2008. The PSIA had cooperated with the

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau The is a bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) in charge of public security with jurisdiction over the Tokyo metropolis. It has a force of more than 2,000 officers. The bureau reports to the Deputy Superintendent General. In ...

in investigating

for a number of years. When asked about their investigation on the cult, a PSIA report had said "There has been no change in its dangerous nature. Strict surveillance is essential." The PSIA had investigated

when it was revealed that the group had established software firms that could pose security risks to Japan.

Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan,
" ''

has been under PSIA surveillance for a long time, suspecting it of supposedly performing espionage activities in

ese soil. The

has sought ¥270 million to fund the PSIA on conducting intelligence against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

n espionage activities. Its facilities were also raided by the PSIA while sentencing for its leaders were underway in 2004. The PSIA had been supposed to be integrated with Naicho in order to reorient the agency to a post-

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

and to enhance its resources, but the proposal was not adopted. An investigation into French

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

terrorist

Lionel Dumont Lionel Dumont (born 1971) is a former French soldier currently serving a 25-year sentence in prison. He converted to Islam after serving with peacekeepers in Somalia. He was later accused of participating in the '' Gang de Roubaix'', which unsucce ...

had been the responsibility of the PSIA in 2004 based on rumors that he was supposed to establish a Japanese Al-Qaeda cell. The PSIA raided the headquarters of

Fumihiro Joyu is a former spokesperson and public relations manager of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, and served as the ''de facto'' chief of the organization from 1999 to 2007, when he split and formed a new group. Background Fumihiro Joyu, orig ...

Hikari no Wa ''Hikari no Wa'' or ''The Circle of Rainbow Light'' (光の輪, literally "Circle of Light") is a Japanese new religious movement started in 2007. It was founded by , the previous spokesperson and public relations manager of the Japanese Buddhi ...

on May 10, 2007. Despite insistence from Joyu that his group had ended ties with

, PSIA officials have warned that his group has ties to

Shoko Asahara , born , was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced ...

after conducting raids. In the wake of Kim Jong-il's death in 2011, the PSIA reported that they are undertaking intelligence work on North Korea by conducting intelligence work towards Chongryon, as they had remitted money and gifts to North Korea before sanctions were imposed. In 2015, the PSIA offered university students a one-day immersion to work alongside veteran PSIA officers. On July 14, 2016, the PSIA sent officers to Sapporo to investigate Aleph's Shiroshi Ward facility under the Act on the Control of Organizations Which Have Committed Acts of Indiscriminate Mass Murder. In January 2017, Okinawa press reported that the PSIA has conducted investigation into pro-Okinawan independence and anti-USFJ bases activist groups for potential links to China. In December 2019, an anti-Aum Shinrikyo video was created by the agency in order to raise public awareness that the group is still a threat to public safety. In recent years, the PSIA is eyed as the basis for the creation of a new foreign intelligence agency should the prime minister go through with plans.

Operations

While the PSIA is known to conduct its operations on domestic soil, there are suggestions that they have conducted limited operations overseas. In the 2000s, the PSIA was reported to have conducted undercover operations at the Chinese-North Korean border by distributing flyers to locals in obtaining information regarding Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea. In 2003, it was reported that the PSIA had a mole inside Aum Shinrikyo by the name of Kazumi Kitagawa, who joined the cult after the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo Metro; she later tried to seek asylum in North Korea.https://web.archive.org/web/20211128231129/https://www.culteducation.com/group/826-aum-sect-shoko-asahara/786-woman-who-fled-to-north-korea-was-government-mole-in-aum.html She revealed to Aum about her work in the PSIA and her plans to cut ties with them after she accuses a PSIA officer of raping her. From 2005 to 2016, reports of Japanese nationals being arrested throughout China for taking photos of sensitive installations or conducting illegal activities under cover of legal occupations suggests that the PSIA has recruited expats working/living in China to conduct limited HUMINT ops. These allegations have never been officially confirmed. According to a National Police Agency official, the PSIA has done a bad job in China if reports do prove that the expats arrested were covertly recruited by the agency.

Organization

The PSIA is formed with the current organization: * Internal Departments ** General Affairs Department *** Trial Office *** Planning and Coordination Office *** Information Management Office *** Public Relations and Communications Office *** Human Resources Section *** Work Promotion Office ** First Intelligence Department (Domestic Intelligence, headed by career police officer) *** Section 1 (Domestic security issues - Citizen group/s investigation, electoral information) *** Section 2 (

Kakurōkyō is a leftist group in Japan. It was formed around 1980 and was involved with struggles related to Narita Airport. There was long-running conflict between the government of Japan and an alliance of leftist activists who were opposed to the airport ...

Revolutionary Communist League, National Committee Japan Revolutionary Communist League, National Committee (革命的共産主義者同盟全国委員会 ''Kakumeiteki Kyōsanshugisha Dōmei, Zenkoku Iinkai'' ?) is a Japanese far-left revolutionary group, often referred to as Chūkaku-ha (中 ...

investigation) *** Third Division (Japanese Communist Party investigation) *** Fourth Division (Right Wing group/s investigation) *** Fifth Division (Other domestic pro-left group/s investigations such as

Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction) The Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction) ( ja, 日本革命的共産主義者同盟革命的マルクス主義派, Nihon Kakumeiteki Kyōsanshugisha Dōmei, Kakumeiteki Marukusu Shugiha) is a Japanese Trotskyism, ...

) *** Aum Special Research Office ** Second Intelligence Department (Foreign Intelligence, headed by career/non-career person) *** Section 1 (Japanese Red Army and international terrorism investigation) *** Section 2 (Foreign intelligence investigation, including liaising with foreign agents stationed in Japan) *** Third Division (North Korean investigation) *** Fourth Division (China/Southeast Asia/Russia/Europe/United States investigation) * Institute ** Training Institute (Located in Akishima) * Regional Bureaus ** Hokkaido (Hokkaido Bureau), Miyagi (Tohoku Bureau), Tokyo (Kanto Bureau), Aichi (Chubu Bureau), Osaka (Kinki Bureau), Hiroshima (Chugoku Bureau), Kagawa (Shikoku Bureau) and Fukuoka (Kyushu Bureau) *** Public Security Intelligence Offices (Hokkaido, Iwate, Niigata, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Nagano, Ishikawa, Kyoto, Hyogo, Okayama, Kumamoto and Okinawa.)

Foreign ties

The PSIA has ties to several foreign intelligence security agencies, including the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

RAW Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

and

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

, with several PSIA agents being invited to train with the CIA under its Intelligence Analysis Course. In October 2018, Chen Wenqiang, head of the Ministry of State Security, visited the PSIA in order to collaborate on antiterrorism activities prior to the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Known Directors-General of PSIA

* Shigetake Ogata – 1993 to 1997, head of Harvest investment groupChongryun HQ sold to ex-intelligence head , The Japan Times
/ref>Chongryun Tokyo HQ sale seems set to fail , The Japan Times
/ref> * Toshiro Yanagi – 2006 to 2009

Criticism

The PSIA has faced criticism in the past for being ineffective, in part because it has little ability to act without approval from the PSEC, an ''ad hoc'' body that meets only when required. According to Philip H.J. Davies and Kristian Gustafson, the PSIA operates similarly to the British security agency

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

since officers have no rights to arrest anyone during a law enforcement operation nor force anyone to be involved in an investigation. The criticism was especially made after public discovery that the agency did not move against Aum Shinrikyo. Due to the strict legal framework surrounding the agency it had not been given permission to monitor the organization directly until 2000, despite having requested permission from the PSEC in 1996.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Official Website

* {{Authority control Japanese intelligence agencies Domestic intelligence agencies