Japan has acknowledged the urgent need to strengthen its counterespionage capabilities after a New York Times investigation described the country as a "den of spies" exploited by Russia to gather intelligence and procure weapons components for its war in Ukraine. Chief government spokesperson Minoru Kihara said Tokyo recognised "a growing need to counter foreign intelligence activities that threaten Japan's national security" and pledged to address the issue "with even greater rigour."

The NYT investigation alleged that hundreds of Russian spies expelled from Western countries after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 relocated to Japan, taking advantage of its thriving technology sector and weak espionage laws — constraints partly rooted in post-World War Two restrictions imposed by Allied occupation authorities. Ukrainian government estimates cited in the report suggest that 90% of Russian missiles and drones contain Japanese components, with procurement networks using intermediary companies and third countries such as Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka to circumvent direct export bans. Russia's operations were allegedly coordinated by an intelligence operative working under cover at the Tokyo office of Aeroflot, the majority state-owned Russian airline.

Japan's vulnerability to foreign espionage is not new. Security researchers have long described the country as a "spy's paradise" — a label popularised after Stanislav Levchenko, a KGB officer who defected in 1979, told the United States Congress how easy it was to recruit sources and extract secrets in Japan. Experts point to the absence of legal authority for administrative interception as a key weakness, meaning suspected spies often cannot be detected or prosecuted before leaving the country. Chinese intelligence services have also exploited these gaps for decades, using student cover identities to extract technological secrets from universities and research laboratories.

In response, Japan's parliament approved landmark legislation in May 2025 representing the country's most significant intelligence restructuring since the end of World War Two. This summer, a new National Intelligence Council — chaired by the prime minister — will begin consolidating information currently scattered across ministries and security agencies that have had no legal obligation to share it. A second phase, planned for 2027, will establish a dedicated foreign intelligence agency, a capability Japan has lacked since its wartime military apparatus was dismantled in 1945. A new National Intelligence Agency will gather and analyse information from the police, public security services, and the foreign affairs and defence ministries before forwarding assessments to the council.

The reform has not been without controversy. Opposition lawmakers, including Makoto Oniki of the Constitutional Democratic Party, have raised concerns that the new agency could expand government surveillance powers without adequate democratic oversight — fears rooted in what one Japanese think-tank describes as a "deep institutional aversion to strong intelligence bodies, inherited from wartime repression and the suppression of civil liberties." Critics also note that a requirement for parliamentary oversight was dropped from the final legislation. For many observers, however, the argument for change is compelling. "It is time for Japan to wake up," said Terusuke Terada, a retired diplomat who experienced Japan's intelligence deficiencies firsthand during the 1996 hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru, when guerrillas held more than 600 guests for 126 days and Japanese officials were entirely dependent on information the Peruvian government chose to share.