The Japan government has taken initiatives to double the number of officials assigned to the Counterterrorism Unit-Japan (CTU-J) to improve its ability to collect and analyse information.
The government would increase the unit’s personnel to 40 people. The number of officials stationed overseas, who are not part of the unit, will be increased from about 20 to about 40, the Japan News reports.
In total, about 80 officials at home and abroad will be in charge of information-gathering.
Major terrorist attacks have killed hundreds of people around the world recently, including the bombings that struck Belgium in March and the attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh on July 1 that left seven Japanese among 17 foreigners dead. Another Japanese, Hoshi Kunio, was killed by the supporters of Islamic State in Rangpur on October 3 last year.
In response to these incidents, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered that the nation’s intelligence gathering system be strengthened.
“Information is essential to preventing terrorism,” Abe said. Increasing the unit’s staff to about 40 people is part of this effort.
The Islamic State group in its Dabiq magazine stated that they targeted the Japanese people after the country had joined the anti-IS coalition.
The Japan News says one objective behind the latest step is to bolster the nation’s ability to prevent terrorist attacks during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The unit was created in December after incidents including the simultaneous attacks in Paris the month before. Organisationally, it is part of the Foreign Ministry.
All the unit’s members are concurrently posted to the Cabinet Secretariat, which essentially puts it directly under the prime minister and chief cabinet secretary.
The unit currently gathers intelligence on the activity of Islamic extremists in four areas – Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Northwest Africa. In addition, experts on local affairs who are not part of the unit are based in local diplomatic facilities. The latest staff increase would keep the four-region system in place, but double the number of those officials stationed overseas to about 40 people.
The government’s Joint Intelligence Committee for Counter Terrorism met Wednesday to confirm these changes. The committee is made up of senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office as well as related ministries and agencies, and is chaired by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiro Sugita.
In addition to the staff increase, the unit is expected to receive additional training on languages, local conditions and other areas, and receive necessary equipment and materials.
