Japan’s Upper House passed a bill Wednesday aimed at centralizing and strengthening the country’s intelligence coordination apparatus. Yet the debate surrounding the National Intelligence Council Law revealed less about Japan’s intelligence system than the current contours of the country’s new political reality.
Last month, opposition parties appeared primed to turn the issue into a political football. That never happened.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s consistent polling numbers and voting in parliament indicated a lack of resistance against her administration’s agenda — and even fissures among some of her chief political opponents.