Japan

1990s

Duggan, Patrice, and Gale Eisenstodt. "The New Face of Japanese Espionage." Forbes, 12 Nov. 1990, 96.

"Japan's extraordinary corporate intelligence networks date to the days immediately following World War II." In their period of copycat technology (1960s-1970s), the Japanese focused on U.S. patents and other technology. Today, "much Japanese intelligence work has come to look more like market research."

Fukuyama Takashi. Boei Chuzaikan to iu Ninmu: 38-dosen no Gunji Interijensu [Duties of a Defense Attaché: Military Intelligence of the 38th Parallel] Tokyo: Wanibooks Plus, 2012.

For Mercado, Studies 57.1 (Mar. 2013), the author, a retired South Korean general, "contributes to the literature of Japanese intelligence by recalling his tour of duty in Seoul [1990-1993] and explaining what a Japanese defense attaché does, which turns out not to be too different from the work of US military attachés."

Glain, Steve, and Northiko Shirouzu. "Japan Asleep under U.S. Security Blanket." Wall Street Journal, 17 Mar. 1997, A12.

ProQuest: "Japan ... has allowed its intelligence and crisis-management capabilities to deteriorate to such a state that some experts say terrorists regard its corporate and public institutions overseas as soft targets." This analysis is made in connection with the hostage crisis at Japan's Embassy in Lima, Peru, that began in December 1996.

Hansen, James H. Japanese Intelligence: The Competitive Edge. Washington, DC: NIBC, 1996.

Henderson, IJI&C 10.2, is not overly enamoured of this study. It "is short on analysis, is dated in its details and has only weak organizational diagrams." The "cited sources are limited to pre-1993 English language publications, with an over-reliance on ... Richard Deacon and Jeffrey Richelson." Hansen provides an interesting discussion "of the intelligence activities of the major Japanese trading corporations" and "their 'intelligence collection and analysis' modus operandi.... [T]his is "a convenient if somewhat basic primer on Japanese intelligence up to the early 1990s." For Oros, I&NS 14.3, the book "offers little more than a compilation of a few existing, English-language sources... -- many of which are quite dated."

Harvey, Donald [RADM/USN (Ret.)]

1. "Intelligence Notebook: Japanese Military Intelligence Unit Forming." Periscope 20, no. 7 (1995): 8.

"The budget proposals of the Japanese Defense Ministry for the next fiscal year beginning in April indicate the intent to form a Defense intelligence organization. The new unit, at present called simply the 'Intelligence Headquarters,' would come under the Joint Staff Council.... The budget request is for $65 million ... to set up a 1,650-member unit headed by a full general or admiral. The organization would bring together the five separate intelligence units of the army, navy and air force, the ministry and the Defense Technology Institute.... It had been reported earlier that the Japanese have concluded they can no longer be dependent on intelligence support provided by the United States."

2. "Intelligence Notebook: Japan's Joint Intelligence Center Now Open." Periscope 22, no. 3 (Jul. 1997): 7.

"About 1,600 civilian and military personnel have begun work in the new Defense Intelligence Headquarters in Tokyo.... Japan will continue to rely heavily on US intelligence but intends to build up its own capabilities."

Henderson, Robert D'A. "Review and Commentary: Reforming Japanese Intelligence." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 10, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 227-238.

This is an excellent brief review of the current state of Japanese intelligence. The author finds that "[t]he Japanese government currently has three principal intelligence assessment agencies, two of which have intelligence gathering capabilities.... The principal agency for compiling intelligence assessments on foreign affairs and domestic threats for cabinet decisionmakers is the Cabinet Information Research Office ... [which has] no intelligence gathering capacity.... The second intelligence assessment organization is the Public Security Investigation Agency ... [which] is responsible for surveillance and countering of internal security threats.... The third element of Japan's intelligence community is the Japanese Defense Agency (JDA) which is responsible for military intelligence, SIGINT and electronic intelligence collection, and code deciphering." (pp. 233-235)

Herring, Jan P. "Business Intelligence in Japan and Sweden: Lessons for the US." Journal of Business Strategy (Mar.-Apr. 1992): 44-48.

Kahaner, Larry. Competitive Intelligence. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

According to Library Journal, 15 Mar. 1997, the author "views competitive intelligence as a tool of national economic sovereignty as well as corporate market success." Kahaner compares the small percentage of large U.S. firms that have formal intelligence operations with the Japanese, "for whom competitive intelligence has been part of national industrial strategy since World War II." Oros, I&NS 14.3, notes that while Japan may be the author's "paragon of the use of competitive intelligence in busines, he is not uncritical of Japanese practices." In particular, Kahaner contrasts the Japanese strength in intelligence with a weakness in analysis.

Schaller, Michael. 1. Altered States: The United States and Japan Since the Occupation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Oros, IJI&C 15.1, says that this work provides "a provocative recent analysis of the deep relationship between Japan's political leaders and the [U.S.] intelligence community."

Sheehan, Darrell C. "The Japanese Intelligence Community." National Security Studies Quarterly 11, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 59- 67.

R. D'A. Henderson comments: "Quite a good assessment of the Japanese intelligence community -- as of the date published!"

Tanaka, Akihiko. "Japan's Security Policy in the 1990s." In Japan's International Agenda, ed. Y. Funabashi, 28-56. New York: New York University Press, 1994.

Return to Japan Table of Contents

Return to Other Countries Table of Contents