In the wake of the terrorist attack in France, Japan is not in the mood to take it easy in case of security of all the players and athletes during their stay in Japan for the 2020 Olympics. For this reason the country is launching a new anti-terrorism intelligence unit next week. This unit is going to be collecting intelligence specifically on terrorism only.
The Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Friday made a statement that the unit is a special unit that will be set up within the Foreign Affairs Ministry. This launch of the specialized unit was apparently supposed to be launched in April next year, but due to the Paris attacks, the launch has been preponed by 4 months.
Japan did not have a specialized unit for gathering intelligence specifically to terrorism before and it is high time that they got one. Suga said, “Japan needs to step up intelligence gathering as a crucial part of anti-terrorism effort amid severe a safety situation. We will make an all-out effort across the country to prevent terrorism.”
The intelligence officers of the specialized unit have been trained in various languages and skills and will be sent to terrorist susceptible areas like Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The unit will comprise of officials from Foreign and Defense ministries and also from National Police Agency and the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office.
20 people will the assigned to the unit as of now and more will be added later as and when the need be. The staff will be assigned to the embassies of the country as special staff to the embassy. The plan to setup the anti-terrorism panel and discuss ways to boost public safety and intelligence gathering after two Japanese nationals were kidnapped and killed by Islamic extremists this year.
This incident has been a huge one since Japan never really was a target for any of the terrorist attacks until now and Japan also never planned to get involved in the power struggle of the world. But now apparently it seems that Japan will have quite the role to play as it is being pulled into the international conflicts. Japan seeks to play a greater military role in international security under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
This is also an effort by Japan to showcase to the world of its anti-terrorism intelligence capabilities as they will be the hosting the G7 summit next year which will be held in western Japan.
rounak