Public Security Intelligence Agency

PSIA officers make an inspection to a suspected Aum Shinrikyo building in 2012.

The Public Security Intelligence Agency was established with the enforcement of the Subversive Activities Prevention Law on 21 July 1952, [7] initially known as the Public Security Investigation Agency before it changed to its current name.[1] The PSIA took over the role of the SIB, which was established by the Allied Forces during the occupation.[3] Most of the recruits came from the disbanded Tokumu Kikan and led by officials from the pre-occupation Ministry of Justice.[3]

Initially focusing on threats from far left groups such as the Japanese Red Army during the days of the Cold War, it began to conduct intelligence work on the Aum Shinrikyo after the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995,[6] with criticism that the PSIA did not monitor the group, especially with their attempt to acquire and stockpile biological weapons on Japanese soil.[10] The PSIA had cooperated with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau in investigating Aum Shinrikyo for a number of years. When asked about their investigation on the cult, a PSIA report had said "There has been no change in its dangerous nature. Strict surveillance is essential."[11]

The PSIA had investigated Aum Shinrikyo when it was revealed that the group had established software firms that could pose security risks to Japan.[12]

Chongryon has been under PSIA surveillance for a long time, suspecting it of supposedly performing espionage activities in Japanese soil.[13] The Ministry of Justice has sought ¥270 million to fund the PSIA on conducting intelligence against North Korean espionage activities.[14] Its facilities were also raided by the PSIA while sentencing for its leaders were underway in 2004.[15]

The PSIA had been supposed to be integrated with Naicho in order to reorient the agency to a post-Cold War and to enhance its resources, but the proposal was not adopted.[10]

An investigation into French Al-Qaeda terrorist Lionel Dumont had been the responsibility of the PSIA in 2004 based on rumors that he was supposed to establish a Japanese Al-Qaeda cell.[16] The PSIA raided the headquarters of Fumihiro Joyu's Hikari no Wa on May 10, 2007.[17] Despite insistence from Joyu that his group had ended ties with Aum Shinrikyo, PSIA officials have warned that his group has ties to Shoko Asahara after conducting raids.[18]

In the wake of Kim Jong-il's death in 2011, the PSIA reported that they are undertaking intelligence work on North Korea by conducting intelligence work towards Chongryon, as they had remitted money and gifts to North Korea before sanctions were imposed.[19]

In 2015, the PSIA offered university students a one-day immersion to work alongside veteran PSIA officers.[20]

On July 14, 2016, the PSIA sent officers to Sapporo to investigate Aleph's Shiroshi Ward facility under the Act on the Control of Organizations Which Have Committed Acts of Indiscriminate Mass Murder.[21]

In January 2017, Okinawa press reported that the PSIA has conducted investigation into pro-Okinawan independence and anti-USFJ bases activist groups for potential links to China.[22]

In December 2019, an anti-Aum Shinrikyo video was created by the agency in order to raise public awareness that the group is still a threat to public safety.[23]

In recent years, the PSIA is eyed as the basis for the creation of a new foreign intelligence agency should the prime minister go through with plans.[24]

The PSIA is formed with the current organization:[27]

• Internal Departments
  • General Affairs Department
    • Trial Office
    • Planning and Coordination Office
    • Information Management Office
    • Public Relations and Communications Office
    • Human Resources Section
    • Work Promotion Office
  • First Intelligence Department (Domestic Intelligence, headed by career police officer)[8][28]
    • Section 1 (Domestic security issues - Citizen group/s investigation, electoral information)
    • Section 2 (Kakurōkyō/Revolutionary Communist League, National Committee investigation)
    • Third Division (Japanese Communist Party investigation)
    • Fourth Division (Right Wing group/s investigation)
    • Fifth Division (Other domestic pro-left group/s investigations such as Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction))
    • Aum Special Research Office
  • Second Intelligence Department (Foreign Intelligence, headed by career/non-career person)[8]
    • Section 1 (Japanese Red Army and international terrorism investigation)
    • Section 2 (Foreign intelligence investigation, including liaising with foreign agents stationed in Japan)
    • Third Division (North Korean investigation)
    • Fourth Division (China/Southeast Asia/Russia/Europe/United States investigation)
• Institute
  • Training Institute (Located in Akishima)[29]
• Regional Bureaus
  • Hokkaido (Hokkaido Bureau), Miyagi (Tohoku Bureau), Tokyo (Kanto Bureau), Aichi (Chubu Bureau), Osaka (Kinki Bureau), Hiroshima (Chugoku Bureau), Kagawa (Shikoku Bureau) and Fukuoka (Kyushu Bureau)
    • Public Security Intelligence Offices (Hokkaido, Iwate, Niigata, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Nagano, Ishikawa, Kyoto, Hyogo, Okayama, Kumamoto and Okinawa.)

• Shigetake Ogata – 1993 to 1997, head of Harvest investment group[30][31]
• Toshiro Yanagi – 2006 to 2009[31]

The PSIA has faced criticism in the past for being ineffective, in part because it has little ability to direct its own activities; if it wants to target an organization it suspects, an ad hoc body that meets only when required, the PSEC, must approve it.[8] The PSIA can also not make arrests nor compel cooperation through any other means.[8] The criticism was especially made when the public found out that the agency did not move against Aum Shinrikyo.[10]

• Davies, Philip H.J.; Gustafson, Kristian, eds. (2013). Intelligence Elsewhere: Spies and Espionage Outside the Anglosphere. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-1589019560.
• Dover, Robert; Goodman, Michael S.; Hillebrand, Claudia, eds. (2014). Routledge Companion to Intelligence Studies. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1589019560.
• Samuels, Richard J. (2019). Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1501741586.
• Wildes, Harry Emerson (1953). "The Postwar Japanese Police". The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science. 43 (5): 655–671. doi:10.2307/1139663. JSTOR 1139663.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Public Security Intelligence Agency.

• Official Website (in Japanese)
• Official Website (Current) (in English)
• Official Website (Archive) (in English)