New intelligence body meets in 'spy paradise' Japan

TOKYO: Japan's National Intelligence Bureau held its first meeting on Friday (Jul 31), a body aimed at centralising information-gathering and addressing accusations that the country is a "spy paradise".Under a bill enacted in May, Japan has upgraded an existing intelligence body to serve as the central command for collecting and analysing information related to security and public safety.The new entity will collate information gathered by different bodies like the police and the defence ministry and report to the National Intelligence Council, also newly created and headed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi."This is much-needed streamlining to make Japan's hitherto disjointed intelligence apparatus more fit for purpose," Yee Kuang Heng, a professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at