India to train Japan's counter-terror intelligence unit

[Agent_47]

NEW DELHI: India will offer full support to augment capabilities of Japan's newly-created intelligence unit, including training one of its officers who will be posted in Delhi, as part of the robust counter-terror partnership forged between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

Such Japanese officers are also being posted in Amman, Cairo and Jakarta, officials said. India will offer training facilities to Japan's counter-terror officers, they said.
The Modi government has also assured support to Japan in contributing to security arrangements during the G-7 summit, which is scheduled to take place at Kashiko Island in Japan's Mie Prefecture in May 2016.

Japan has not been a victim of terror on its soil for many years and has limited counter-terror capabilities, officials said. Japan has not played any significant role in global counter-terror initiatives so far either. However, Japanese nationals have been targeted recently in certain countries in Asia by Islamic State and other extremist groups. Japanese nationals are stationed in various countries, from peaceful zones to terrorism hotspots, owing to the country's huge economic presence and therefore face security risk.

The Islamic State terrorists killed two Japanese hostages in Syria last February. Three Japanese women were killed in a terror strike in a museum in Tunisia in March. One Japanese citizen was killed in Bangladesh in October. The incidents influenced the Japanese government to launch a counterterrorism intelligence unit on December 8.

Following the terror strikes in Paris on November 13 days ahead of COP-21, Japan is worried about ensuring security at multilateral summits.

Read more at:
India to train Japan's counter-terror intelligence unit - The Economic Times

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

Japan launches anti-terror unit ahead of 2020 Olympics, experts urge more intelligence skills

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, standing, gives instructions to members, foreground, of a newly-established international terrorism information collection unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. Japan launched on Tuesday the specialized intelligence unit within the Foreign Ministry as the government steps up counter-terrorism in preparation to host a Group of Seven summit next year and the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan launched a new counterterrorism unit in an air of secrecy Tuesday, with journalists only allowed to photograph its 24 members from behind.

The country is expanding its international espionage work after being shocked by the deaths of five Japanese citizens at the hands of Islamic militants this year. The recent Paris attacks have also raised fears ahead of a Group of Seven summit in Japan next year and the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.

It's mostly uncharted territory for Japan, which has never suffered a terror attack by outsiders in its modern history.

"The country is inexperienced, and its counterterrorism capability is untested," said Motonobu Abekawa, a former official at the Public Security Intelligence Agency and a terrorism studies expert at Nihon University. "People have long thought terrorist attacks are a distant problem abroad."

Japan began exploring ways to boost public safety and intelligence after the Islamic State group killed two Japanese hostages in Syria early this year. An attack on tourists at a museum in Tunisia later claimed three more Japanese lives.

During the hostage crisis, Japan often appeared at a loss for quality intelligence. Japanese agents should develop their own sources so they don't have to rely on U.S. or British agents for information, Abekawa said.

"I hope eventually they can be counterparts of MI6 or the CIA," he said.

The new Counterterrorism Unit-Japan includes staff from the foreign and defense ministries, the National Police Agency and the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, Japan's version of the CIA.

Initially made up of four leaders and 20 Tokyo-based experts focusing on Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and north and western Africa, it eventually is to also include 20 intelligence officers assigned to overseas posts, possibly in Amman, Cairo, Jakarta and New Delhi.

News photographers covering the launch were told they couldn't show the faces of the team, only their backs, as they sat in rows of plastic chairs in the prime minister's office.

"Collecting and centralizing intelligence on terrorism have become urgent tasks as the risk of attacks grows," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told the unit members. "The unit has a crucial mission to secure the lives of Japanese in and outside the country."

Japan has no institute to train intelligence agents, so they will have to learn on the job.

"Japan is still a novice in counterterrorism measures, and there are lots of blind spots," said Koichi Oizumi, an expert on risk management and terrorism at Aomori Chuo Gakuin University. "The biggest concern is intelligence gathering. There is a serious shortage of experts who can gather real intelligence and analyze it."

In its annual security report published Monday, the National Police Agency stressed the need to raise alert levels for next year's G-7 summit in western Japan because it could be "a perfect target" amid escalating extremist attacks in Europe and the Middle East.

Last month's Paris attacks prompted splashy stories about potential targets in Tokyo in weekly magazines. A "Tokyo terror target map" in one included a popular electronics district, an upscale shopping mall during the Christmas season and a major shrine.

Japan plans to obtain passenger information from airlines, install body scanners at major airports and step up identification of foreign visitors at hotels. A new police unit will search for Internet content related to extremist groups.

Some experts raised caution over the security measures, saying they could help the government exercise undue power over citizens and interfere with their freedom of information.

There is a risk that the terrorist attacks in Europe will be used as an excuse by Japan's authoritarian lawmakers and police bureaucrats to expand their powers," said Jiro Yamaguchi, a political science professor at Hosei University. In an article he wrote in The Japan Times, he cited a 2010 leak of internal police documents showing false accusations against Muslim residents in Japan treated as terrorism suspects.

Japan's strict gun controls, the importance attached to conformity, its strict immigration policy and the language barrier may have made it difficult for Islamic extremists to take root in the country, Abekawa said. But extremist groups are now promoting a "lone wolf" strategy so they can be inconspicuous and anyone can produce homemade bombs with items sold at drugstores, he said.

Japan launches anti-terrorism unit ahead of summit, Olympics - US News

 

[Death In Fire]

Great news.

 

[GR!FF!N]

already posted. @waz merge it