Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:11:35.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Explaining the Absence of a Japanese Central Intelligence Agency: Alliance Politics, Sectionalism, and Antimilitarism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2016

Brad Williams
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

I examine a relatively underexplored aspect of Japan's early postwar history and seek to explain why attempts to establish a Japanese-style central intelligence agency (JCIA) in the 1950s were unsuccessful. I evaluate three competing explanations drawn from the level of international politics, focusing on US power resources and influence as well as liberal and constructivist styles of analysis—alliance politics, sectionalism, and the norm of antimilitarism—in order to shed light on the historical origins of Japan's intelligence apparatus, which is relatively underdeveloped and underfunded compared to other middle powers. It highlights the primacy of domestic factors over structural causes in explaining the decision not to establish a JCIA. In particular, I argue that the JCIA proposal failed primarily because of attacks on important proponents that, while sometimes driven by seemingly rational organizational interests, were nevertheless legitimated by growing antimilitaristic sentiments shared by elites from the political center to the left of the ideological spectrum. The newly emerging norm of antimilitarism was predicated largely on a fear of constraints on recently acquired civil and political liberties. These fears, manifested most prominently in vocal Diet and media opposition, were compounded by the norm of secrecy—an important element of intelligence activities—which served to heighten further speculation about the malign intent of postwar Japan's reconstituted intelligence system.

Keywords

Antimilitarismbureaucratic politicsCIAdemocracyintelligenceJapanese central intelligence agencyJapan-US allianceShigeru YoshidaTaketora Ogata
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , April 2013 , pp. 137 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

References

Allison, Graham. 1971. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1982. “On the Way to Securing a World Position? Japan's Intelligence Agencies and Their Activities.” Japan Quarterly 29, 2: 159–162.Google Scholar
Arima, Tetsuo. 2010a. CIA to Sengo Nihon: Hoshu Gōdō, Hoppō Ryōdo, Saigunbi. Tokyo: Heibonsha.Google Scholar
Arima, Tetsuo. 2010b. Daihonei Sanbō wa Sengo nani to Tatakattanoka. Tokyo: Shinchōsha.Google Scholar
Berger, Thomas. 1993. “From Sword to Chrysanthemum: Japan's Culture of Anti-militarism.” International Security 17, 4: 119–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, Thomas. 1998. Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Germany and Japan. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, , Patrick, J., and Samuels, Richard. 2005. “Nine Lives? The Politics of Constitutional Reform in Japan.” Policy Studies 19. Washington, DC: East-West Center.Google Scholar
Calder, Kent E. 1988. “Japanese Foreign Economic Policy Formation: Explaining the Reactive State.” World Politics 40, 4: 517–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cha, Victor. 2009/2010. “Powerplay Origins of the U.S. Alliance System in Asia.” International Security 34, 3: 158–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chong, Yon. 1973. Kyanon Kikan kara no Shōgen. Tokyo: Banchō Shobō, cited in Yuasa, Hiroshi. 2011. “Rekishi ni Kieta Sanbō, Yoshida Shigeru to Tatsumi Eiichi (52): Sōri Daijin no ‘007’ o Tsukure.” MSN.SankeiNyūsu, March 6. http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/print/110306/art11030607430002-c.htm (accessed May 21, 2011).Google Scholar
Dorling, Philip. 2011. “WikiLeaks Unveils Japanese Spy Agency.” Sydney Morning Herald, February 21. www.smh.com.au/technology-news/wikileaks-unveils-japanese-spy-agency-20110220–1b17a.html (accessed April 7, 2011).Google Scholar
Dower, John. 1969. “The Eye of the Beholder: Background Notes on the U.S.-Japan Military Relationship.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 2, 1: 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dower, John. 2000. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Finnegan, Michael. 2009. Benchmarking America's Military Alliances: NATO, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Washington, DC: Center for U.S.-Korea Policy, Asia Foundation.Google Scholar
Handa, Yūichirō. 1999. Yōkai suru Kōanchōsachō: Habōhō Kaitei no Jittai. Tokyo: Gendai Shokan.Google Scholar
Hansen, James H. 1996. Japanese Intelligence: The Competitive Edge. Washington, DC: NIBC Press.Google Scholar
Haruna, Mikio. 2000. Himitsu no Fairu: CIA to Tai-Nichi Kōsaku (jō). Tokyo: Shinchō Bunko.Google Scholar
Hatakeyama, Seikō. 2007. Nani mo Shiranakatta Nihonjin: Sengo Bōryaku Jiken no Shinsō. Tokyo: Shōdensha.Google Scholar
Inoue, Masaya. 2008. “Yoshida Shigeru no Chūgoku ‘Gyakushinkō’ Kōsō.” Kokusai Seiji 151: 36–53.Google Scholar
Izumikawa, Yasuhiro. 2010. “Explaining Japanese Antimilitarism: Normative and Realist Constraints on Japan's Security Policy.” International Security 35, 2: 123–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1972. Conspiracy at Matsukawa. Berkeley: University of California, Center for Japanese and Korean Studies.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1977. “MITI and Japanese International Economic Policy.” In The Foreign Policy of Modern Japan, ed. Scalapino, R., 227–279. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jourdonnais, Adam. 1963. “Intelligence in the New Japan.” Studies in Intelligence 7, 3. www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol7no3/html/vo7i3a01p-0001.htm (accessed March 3, 2011).Google Scholar
Kaneko, Masashi. 2011. “Nihon: Sōō no ‘Jitsuryoku’ o Moteru ka.” In Interijensu naki Kokka wa Horobu: Sekai no Jōhō Komyuniti, ed. Terumasa, Nakanishi and Kōtarō, Ochiai, 300–344. Tokyo: Aki Shobō.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter. 1996. Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J., and Okawara, Nobuo. 1993. “Japan's National Security: Structures, Norms, and Policies.” International Security 17, 4: 84–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitaoka, Hajime. 2005. “Japanese Intelligence System: Past, Now [sic] and Challenges for the Future.” Paper presented at Nuffield College, Oxford University, May.Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, Frank. 1952. “Heidelberg to Madrid: The Story of General Willoughby.” Reporter, August 19. www.maebrussell.com/Articles_and_Notes/Charles_Willoughby.html, (accessed March 24, 2011).Google Scholar
Koh, Byung Chul. 1989. Japan's Administrative Elite. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotani, Ken. 2009. Japanese Intelligence in World War II. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.Google Scholar
Krieger, Wolfgang. 2009. “U.S. Patronage of German Postwar Intelligence.” In Handbook of Intelligence Studies, ed. Johnson, L., 91–102. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kurita, Naoki. 1996. Ogata Taketora: Jōhō Soshiki no Shusaisha. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan.Google Scholar
Kuroi, Buntarō. 2007. Nihon no Jōhō Kikan: Shirarezaru Taigai Interijensu no Zenbō. Tokyo: Kōdansha.Google Scholar
Mainichi Shimbun. 2009. July 26, 1.Google Scholar
Meguro, Katsuo. 1953. “Shinjōhō Kikan to Ogata Kōsō.” Tōhō Keizai 24, 1: 26.Google Scholar
Mercado, Stephen. C. 2002. The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School. Dulles, VA: Brassey's, Inc.Google Scholar
Midford, Paul. 2011. Rethinking Japanese Public Opinion and Security: From Pacifism to Realism? Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mori, Ei. 2008. Kuro no Kikan: Sengo “Tokumu Kikan” wa ika ni Fukkatsu shitaka. Tokyo: Shōdensha.Google Scholar
Murai, Jun. 1952. “Chian Mondai no Kaiko to Tenbō.” Jichi Jihō 5, 10: 2–6.Google Scholar
Nakanishi, Terumasa. 2010. “‘Buki naki Sensō’ no Rekishi to Shinjitsu.” In Bōkoku no Interijensu: “Buki naki Sensō” to Nihon no Mirai, ed. Kano, T., 30–61. Tokyo: Nihon Bungeisha.Google Scholar
Ōmori, Yoshio. 2005. Nihon no Interijensu Kikan. Tokyo: Bungei Shinsho.Google Scholar
Oros, Andrew. 2002. “Japan's Growing Intelligence Capability.” International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 15, 1: 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oros, Andrew. 2007. “Explaining Japan's Tortured Course to Surveillance Satellites.” Review of Policy Research 24, 1: 29–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oros, Andrew. 2008. Normalizing Japan: Politics, Identity and the Evolution of Security Practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Pekkanen, Saadia, and Kallender-Umezu, Paul. 2010. In Defense of Japan: From the Market to the Military in Space Policy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Petersen, Michael. 2006. “The Intelligence That Wasn't: CIA Name Files, the U.S. Army, and Intelligence Gathering in Occupied Japan.” In Researching Japanese War Crimes: Introductory Essays, ed. Drea, E. et al., 197–230. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration for the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group.Google Scholar
Samuels, Richard. 2007. Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sangiin Honkaigi Gijiroku dai 8-gō. 1952. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, December 3 (accessed May 12, 2011).Google Scholar
Sangiin Hōmu Iinkai Gijiroku dai 10-gō. 1977. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, April 1 (accessed May 12, 2011).Google Scholar
Sangiin Naikaku Iinkai Gijiroku dai 10-gō. 1986. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, May 21 (accessed May 12, 2011).Google Scholar
Sangiin Naikaku Iinkai Gijiroku dai 4-gō. 1983. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, March 23 (accessed May 12, 2011).Google Scholar
Schmidt-Eenboom, Erich. 2001. “The Bundesnachrichtendienst, the Bundeswehr and Sigint in the Cold War and After.” Intelligence and National Security 16, 1: 146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shūgiin Hōmu Iinkai Gijiroku dai 28-gō. 1967. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, June 30 (accessed May 13, 2011).Google Scholar
Shūgiin Honkaigi Gijiroku dai 6-gō. 1952. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, November 26 (accessed May 13, 2011).Google Scholar
Shōgiin Naikaku Iinkai Gijiroku dai 15-gō. 1986. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, May 8 (accessed May 13, 2011).Google Scholar
Shūgiin Naikaku Iinkai Gijiroku dai 5-gō. 1958. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp, February 20 (accessed May 13, 2011).Google Scholar
Taigai Jōhō Kinō Kyōka ni kansuru Kondankai. 2005. Taigai Jōhō Kinō Kyōka ni Mukete, September 13.Google Scholar
Tsuchiyama, Jitsuo. 1997. “Dōmei no Shūen? Nichi-Bei Kankei no Yukue.” In Reisengo no Nichi-Bei Kankei, ed. Gourevitch, P., Inoguchi, T., and Purrington, C., 29–69. Tokyo: NTT Shuppan.Google Scholar
Tsukamoto, Katsuichi. 2008. Jieitai no Jōhōsen: Rikumaku Daini Buchō no Kaisō. Tokyo: Soshisha.Google Scholar
Waseda Daigaku Seiji Keizai Kenkyōjo. 2009. “20 Seiki Media Kenkyūjo Tokubetsu Kenkyūkai: CIA to Ogata Taketora.” http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/katote/0907OGATA.pdf, July 25 (accessed May 21, 2011).Google Scholar
Williams, Brad. 2010. “The Challenges of Intelligence Oversight in a Normalising Japan.” In Democratic Oversight of Intelligence Services, ed. Baldino, D., 161–186. Sydney: Federation Press.Google Scholar
Yuasa, Hiroshi. 2010a. “Rekishi ni Kieta Sanbō, Yoshida Shigeru to Tatsumi Eiichi (36): Shushō no Gunji Komon o Haimeisu.” Sankei Shimbun, November 7, p. 6.Google Scholar
Yuasa, Hiroshi. 2010b. “Rekishi ni Kieta Sanbō, Yoshida Shigeru to Tatsumi Eiichi (11): Hanamegane to Kaze no Otoko to Kenka Tarō ga ita.” Sankei Shimbun, May 16, p. 6.Google Scholar
Yuasa, Hiroshi. 2010c. “Rekishi ni Kieta Sanbō, Yoshida Shigeru to Tatsumi Eiichi (40): Gokuhi Katsudō, Futatsu no Kao o Motsu Otoko.” MSN.Sankei Nyūsu, December 5. http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/news/110113/art11011321470069-n-l.htm (accessed May 23, 2011).Google Scholar
Yuasa, Hiroshi. 2011. “Rekishi ni Kieta Sanbō, Yoshida Shigeru to Tatsumi Eiichi (54): ‘Chūō Jōhōkyoku’ Kōsō no Zasetsu.” MSN.SankeiNyūsu, March 20. http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/print/110320/art11032008070001-c.htm (accessed May 23, 2011).Google Scholar