CGTN Poll: Over 80% view Japan's intelligence overhaul dangerous for regional security

Centralizing intelligence authority has long served as a precursor to military expansion. The national intelligence agency pushed for by Japan's right-wing forces risks dragging Japanese society back onto the path of foreign aggression.

A global poll conducted by CGTN found that 84.8% of respondents viewed Japanese right-wing forces' attempts to strengthen intelligence functions as yet another dangerous move toward neo-militarism that warrants high vigilance from the international community.

The law enacted by the Japanese parliament on Wednesday will establish an intelligence system with a centralized national intelligence council and a national intelligence agency serving as its operational arm, consolidating the country's fragmented intelligence functions under a unified command. This unifies the decentralized intelligence structure in Japan after World War II and concentrates intelligence power in the hands of the Prime Minister.

In the poll, 86.5% of respondents see this as a major transformation of Japan's post-war intelligence system, while 77.7% believe it could lead to abuse of power and a lack of checks, balances and oversight.

The proposed legislation has evoked the horrors of the Tokko in Japan. Tokko, short for the Special Higher Police, was a notorious secret police apparatus that crushed dissent and enforced ideological control within the country before and during World War II, acting as a critical tool for Japanese militarists to control public opinion at home.

According to the poll, a total of 80.8% of respondents voiced deep concerns that civil liberties will be eroded and that Japan faces a heightened risk of reverting to wartime-style social control. Meanwhile, 73.6% fear the agency will be used by Japan's ruling authorities to suppress anti-war and peace advocates.

The planned national intelligence agency will oversee foreign intelligence, counter-espionage and cyber intelligence operations. It will also integrate more deeply into the US-led Indo-Pacific intelligence alliance, boosting Japan's capacity to meddle in regional conflicts. In the poll, 83% of respondents believe that this move will intensify regional intelligence rivalries and seriously undermine the already fragile security trust among regional countries. Also, 83.2% agree that Japan's latest move will undermine the security landscape of East Asia.

Some analysts argue that the proposed establishment of the national intelligence agency marks a critical juncture where Japan's neo-militarism consolidates from strategic conception into institutional reality, and represents a key step in its bid to breach the pacifist constitution and reassert its identity as a major military power. This argument won 87.6% of approval from the poll participants.

Released across CGTN's platforms in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian, the poll drew 3,028 participants who cast their votes and shared comments within 24 hours.