Japan’s terrorist monitoring unit to maintain four bases including Egypt

The Japanese government is arranging for the Foreign Ministry’s new intelligence-gathering unit on terrorism to have overseas bases in Amman, Cairo, Jakarta and New Delhi, a government source stated Friday.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the government has decided to move forward its launch to sometime around the new year from the previously planned launch in April, which is a month before the Group of Seven summit in central Japan, government officials said.

The unit, which the government in May decided to establish, will comprise four region-based teams — covering North Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South Asia — that will gather information from Japan’s diplomatic missions.

The intelligence-gathering section will be a pillar of the nation’s counterterrorism measures when it hosts the summit, the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Olympics and Paralympics in 2020.

The government plans to assign to the foreign offices staff members from the Foreign and Defense ministries and the National Police Agency who have regional expertise and are fluent in the local languages, according to the source.

The Jordanian capital of Amman, located close to the stronghold of the Islamic State militant group, is a regional information hub where the Japanese government in January set up its local headquarters to deal with the group’s taking of two Japanese hostages.

The Cairo office will gather information on the Islamic State and also on Nigeria’s Boko Haram, Jakarta will focus on Jemaah Islamiyah, and the New Delhi office will focus on the Taliban in Afghanistan and other extremists, the source said.

Intelligence teams will be set up at the embassies in those cities, with the unit’s members stationed as diplomats. The aim is also to enhance cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies.

Source: The Japan Times