Spying on US forces, weapons technology adds urgency to Japan’s intel overhaul

TOKYO — Japan’s push to strengthen its intelligence services could help protect tens of thousands of U.S. troops and sensitive military technology from Russian and Chinese espionage, according to experts who say the country has long been an attractive target for foreign spies.

Japan recently launched a National Intelligence Bureau and a National Intelligence Council chaired by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and plans to establish a dedicated overseas intelligence agency as part of a sweeping national security overhaul.

Japan hosts approximately 55,000 U.S. troops and serves as a hub for American military operations in the Indo-Pacific, making intelligence gathering there potentially valuable to U.S. adversaries.

James Brown, an international affairs expert at Temple University’s Japan campus, said Thursday that Tokyo could learn from Washington as it builds its new intelligence capabilities, although Britain may provide a more practical model.

“The U.S. is, perhaps, not the best model for Japan, simply because it is so vast — the architecture of U.S. intelligence,” he told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

Brown spoke alongside Sergiy Korsunsky, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Japan, during a discussion that highlighted adversaries’ efforts to obtain weapons technology.

Sergiy Korsunksy, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Japan, speaks to reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, Aug. 27, 2026. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

Japan has joined international sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, but Japanese-made components continue to turn up in Russian drones and missiles, Korsunsky said.

“We have found many spare parts of many countries, including Americans, Europeans and Japanese … from 13 Japanese companies in those drones and missiles,” he said.

The presence of a Japanese component does not necessarily mean its manufacturer knowingly supplied Russia. Instead, Korsunsky described networks of intermediary companies established in countries such as China, Thailand and Vietnam that purchase commercially available equipment and re-export it to Russia.

Brown said Russian military intelligence has exploited similar methods to circumvent sanctions and acquire technology for the war.

“Ukraine and other governments had repeatedly warned the Japanese side about the fact that a large number of Japanese-made components were ending up in Russian-made weapons, yet it seems that very little action was taken,” he said.

Japan’s lack of a comprehensive law criminalizing foreign espionage has contributed to its reputation as a “spy paradise,” Brown said.

That vulnerability carries particular significance for the U.S.-Japan alliance because of the concentration of American forces and military infrastructure in the country.

Foreign intelligence services have historically targeted U.S. bases in Japan and Japanese technology, according to a July 13 Al Jazeera report citing experts who have studied the country’s intelligence vulnerabilities.

Brown said Russian and Chinese intelligence services employ different methods.

“With Chinese espionage, it’s seen as relying much more on having non-professional spies, in having ordinary Chinese nationals who perhaps are living overseas, living in Japan, working for Japanese companies, and they are leaned on to do their patriotic duty,” he said.

Russia, by contrast, trains intelligence officers to operate overseas under identities that conceal any connection to Moscow, Brown said.

Some pose as citizens of third countries using false documents and spend time elsewhere establishing those identities before moving to their eventual targets, he said.

The New York Times reported July 12 that a Russian operative working undercover in Japan as an airline employee helped obtain high-tech components before leaving the country after his activities were exposed.