Tokyo further dismantles postwar order: China Daily editorial

Japan's National Intelligence Bureau — the country's first centralized foreign intelligence body since the end of World War II — held its inaugural meeting on Friday, chaired by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

This represents another troubling shift in Tokyo's security policies, as it is a significant step in Japan's systematic push toward remilitarization and a challenge to the postwar international order.

The 730-person bureau, set up under the National Intelligence Council Establishment Act that passed Japan's upper house in May, ends a postwar arrangement that left the country's intelligence divided across the Cabinet Office, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Justice.

This design breaks with the long-standing tradition of decentralized intelligence checks and balances in postwar Japan. Even more concerning are the bureau's vague functional boundaries and the near absence of oversight. The concentration of power and the lack of supervision make it easy for the intelligence system to become a tool for right-wing politicians to manipulate politics and suppress dissent, rendering the checks and balances of the Diet and public opinion ineffective.

Viewed from a historical perspective, this system bears dangerously similar genetic traits to the espionage governance of Japanese militarism before and during World War II. The so-called "Special Higher Police", known as Tokko and established in 1911, once suppressed progressive forces domestically and acted as a vanguard of aggression abroad. The so-called "Cabinet Intelligence Bureau", established in 1940, provided an integrated intelligence hub for the invasion of China and the waging of the Pacific War.

Japan's wartime intelligence agencies were compulsorily dissolved following its defeat. However, the postwar settlement left the deeper structures of militaristic thinking largely intact. With Tokyo now establishing a modern intelligence framework under revised security legislation, the prospect of a militaristic intelligence ethos being revived — albeit in contemporary guise — is a risk that warrants serious attention.

Tokyo's deeper intention is to pave the way for military expansion. Since the Takaichi government took office, it has accelerated the push to lift the ban on "collective self-defense" and amend Article 9 of the pacifist Constitution.

Japan's military budget for the fiscal year 2026 exceeded 9.04 trillion yen ($57.36 billion) for the first time, a record high. The Japanese government has abandoned the principle of "exclusive defense", accelerated the development of long-range offensive weapons, relaxed arms exports and participated in joint military exercises with many other countries. Against this backdrop, the core task of the National Intelligence Bureau is precisely to build an all-encompassing intelligence hub for military expansion, forming a complete chain of "intelligence coordination — high-level decision making — military implementation".

Article 9 of Japan's Constitution renounces the country's right to remilitarization. But the Takaichi government is systematically abandoning its postwar commitments. From the "Special Higher Police" to the new intelligence system, the right-wing forces of Japan are revisiting the path of intelligence centralization.

For nations that suffered from Japanese aggression in WWII, the number "731", the code name of the Imperial Japanese Army's germ warfare unit, carries painful memories. For Japan to choose July 31 as the date to launch the new intelligence agency is nothing but an open insult and provocation.

Japan's push for intelligence system reform poses a serious threat to regional peace and stability. The international community must be highly vigilant against the moves being taken by Tokyo. In the face of the rise of neo-militarism in Japan, China should take targeted countermeasures with a firm commitment to safeguarding its national security. It is necessary for China to continuously enhance all-weather, multi-domain counterintelligence reconnaissance and deterrence capabilities.

Japan's intelligence-gathering and military activities should be closely monitored to ensure that China's core interests are not violated. A robust security firewall for technology, the economy and digital supply chains must also be established to tightly guard against Japanese intelligence infiltration and cognitive warfare threats.