日本政府计划最早在2026财年强化情报收集与分析能力，拟于明年向国会提交法案，将内阁情报调查室升格为国家情报局，设置局长职位，并成立包含首相在内的国家情报会议。新情报局将与负责外交与安全政策的国家安全保障局并列，作为跨部会情报「司令塔」，统筹防卫省、外务省、法务省等机关的情报机能。与日本维新会的联合协议还要求在2027财年结束前成立专责对外情报的独立情报机关，形成分阶段推进的时间表。
推动此改革的背景是对间谍活动、线上虚假与误导资讯、以及外国势力干预选举等风险的忧虑不断升高，呈现明显增长趋势。现行由内阁情报调查室搜集卫星、政治与经济动向以及国际恐怖主义资讯，但缺乏统辖其他机关的权限，各省厅分别在外馆、公安调查厅、警察厅外事情报部、防卫省情报本部等自主管理情报，导致资源分散。新设的国家情报会议被构想为将关键情报集中提供给首相，以消除决策中的「资讯落差」。
未来的法律框架将涵盖广义间谍活动，包括秘密情报搜集、恐怖等颠覆行动、认知战等影响操作，以及在他国政府内安插人员等，并计划仿效美国、英国、法国等，导入「外国代理人登记法」，要求代表外国政府行事者事前登记。自11月起，国民民主党与参政党已各自提交反间谍法案，显示在反间谍立法与情报强化方面，执政党与在野党在未来数年内出现跨党派合作的可能性正在上升。
Japan plans as early as fiscal 2026 to strengthen intelligence collection and analysis, aiming to submit a bill next year to upgrade the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office into a national intelligence bureau, create a bureau director post, and establish a National Intelligence Council including the prime minister. The new bureau will stand on the same level as the National Security Secretariat, becoming a cross‑agency command center over intelligence divisions in the Defense, Foreign and Justice ministries and others. A coalition agreement with the Japan Innovation Party also calls for creating an independent foreign‑intelligence agency by the end of fiscal 2027, setting a phased timetable.
Rising risks from espionage, online disinformation, and foreign election interference are described as growing, creating a clear upward trend in perceived threats. Currently, CIRO gathers satellite, political, economic and terrorism data but lacks authority over other bodies, while each ministry and agency such as PSIA, the National Police Agency and the Defense Ministry’s intelligence headquarters runs its own siloed functions. The envisioned National Intelligence Council would centralize crucial information for the prime minister, reducing decision‑making gaps, and Takayuki Kobayashi stresses the need for a strong command that can systematically request data from all intelligence divisions.
The future legal framework would cover a broad range of espionage, from secret information gathering and subversive terrorism to cognitive‑warfare influence campaigns and placing agents in foreign governments, and would introduce a foreign agents registration act modeled on systems in the U.S., U.K. and France. In November, the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito each submitted anti‑espionage bills, signaling a rising likelihood of cross‑party cooperation on intelligence‑strengthening and anti‑espionage legislation over the next several years.