‘Global spy alliance Five Eyes should let Japan join’

By Karishma Vaswani

Intelligence-sharing networks need reliable and trustworthy partners. Japan is an obvious choice for the Western-dominated “Five Eyes” spy alliance, made up of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Tokyo’s inclusion in the club is long overdue, especially as the region combats China’s growing assertiveness and the unpredictability of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The group shouldn’t waste any more time to take advantage of Tokyo’s expertise. It has one of the world’s biggest intelligence-gathering establishments and has long had eyes on China and North Korea, both considered among the nation’s biggest security threats.

That knowledge would prove invaluable for the Washington-led coalition, under pressure from an increasingly hostile environment.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s trip to Tokyo this week to strengthen security cooperation is another reminder of that reality. Beijing’s influence is growing, both economically and militarily.

China this week launched the largest number of its naval vessels around Taiwan since 2022, in yet another attempt to intimidate the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.

Meanwhile, Washington’s other Asian allies, South Korea and the Philippines, are increasingly unstable. Seoul is contending with mass protests, the result of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s disastrous decision to temporarily impose martial law last week.

He is facing an impending impeachment vote, and said Thursday he won’t step down. In Manila, a war is brewing between the archipelago’s two ruling families, the Marcoses and the Dutertes, that could spell more uncertainty ahead.

Japan, even with its own recent political upheaval that saw Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba lose his parliamentary majority, is currently America’s most reliable Asian partner. Still, for any intelligence sharing to work well, Tokyo will need to address its own security weaknesses, in particular the robustness of its cybersecurity and data systems.

In 2023, the US warned Japan that Chinese state hackers had infiltrated its defense networks before Tokyo took sufficient action to secure them.

It’s clear that Tokyo’s move in 2013 to pass the country’s first-ever law addressing top-secret material across defense and diplomacy just wasn’t enough to protect national secrets. More work needs to be done.

Japan is already ramping up defense spending in recognition of the threats, a move welcomed by its allies. It should also properly invest in strengthening cybersecurity capabilities.

Part of the issue is historical. After World War II, the government hesitated to create an intelligence community because public opinion was opposed.

Tokyo still doesn’t have the equivalent of the CIA or UK’s MI6, making it difficult for Japan to contribute any human intelligence services — like spying, reconnaissance and espionage activities — to Five Eyes.

In order for Tokyo to join the grouping, it should understand the standards that all partners meet, and develop a separate department in charge of vetting government personnel with access to information that is classified using common standards and procedures, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies notes. This would give staff different levels of clearance, which in turn would limit access to classified information.

Tokyo does manage seven high-performance reconnaissance information-gathering satellites that are extremely advanced and able to identify a human head from outer space.

These have the advantage of being trained on East Asian areas, like China, North Korea and Russia. This would be a huge advantage for the Five Eyes, and makes Japan an attractive sixth member.

There is precedence for this. An intelligence leak from 2013 revealed that the alliance had additional intelligence-sharing levels: Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes. Israel, Singapore, Japan and South Korea have all been informal partners within these frameworks.

Tokyo’s elevation to the Five Eyes level could boost Asia’s security outlook even further.

The signs are pointing toward an eventual inclusion. In mid-November, the alliance reportedly held its first meeting in Japan with senior enlisted personnel of all members. These efforts should continue, to help pave the way for a complete integration in the future.

Beijing will see including Tokyo in the global spy club as yet another way for the West to try to contain China. But in a world increasingly lacking in leadership, the intelligence-sharing network could help prevent crises before they begin.