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Counter-disinformation should become a bilateral Australia\u2013Japan priority, an explainer<\/a> published today by ASPI and Japan Nexus Intelligence argues. Mission leads should be appointed in Australia\u2019s Office of National Intelligence and Japan\u2019s newly established National Intelligence Agency.<\/p>\n An information offensive against Japan is being conducted through overt propaganda<\/a> tools, including Chinese state media, as well as by exploiting<\/a> an online network of social media influencers, inauthentic accounts and bots to spread disinformation and boost Beijing\u2019s narratives. Beijing has ratcheted up<\/a> its campaign since Sanae Takaichi became prime minister in October. Nonetheless, Takaichi\u2019s resounding general electoral victory in February this year gives her government a mandate to push ahead with reforms that will improve Japan\u2019s resilience to disinformation and other types of coercion.<\/p>\n Takaichi\u2019s reforms have included the establishment in May of a new ministerial-level National Intelligence Committee, served by the equally new National Intelligence Agency, to better direct Japan\u2019s multiple intelligence institutions. (The agency\u2019s name is also translated as National Intelligence Bureau.)<\/p>\n China\u2019s foreign affairs spokesperson reacted to these reforms by labelling<\/a> them a return to imperial-era militarism and preparation for international aggression. She urged Tokyo to learn lessons of history. Tellingly, she said the reforms were \u2018not only Japan\u2019s internal affair\u2019, seemingly challenging the right of a democratically elected government to make sovereign decisions in the national interest.<\/p>\n This should resonate with Australians, who weathered years of China\u2019s economic sanctions and other forms of coercion after their government, with bipartisan support, adopted a suite of counter foreign interference measures around 2018. Beijing then, as now in relation to Japan, tried to conceal its responsibility for coercing Australia behind lies in public and more subtle disinformation online. The lesson that Canberra and Tokyo can learn from their recent history is that information warfare is fundamental to Beijing\u2019s statecraft. So it makes sense for them to work together to counter it.<\/p>\n Australia and Japan have complementary strengths that can help them collectively tackle disinformation. Australia has passed legislation and set up institutions to counter foreign interference, including a transparency register to distinguish between lawful lobbying and malign activities, as well as mechanisms for attributing hybrid attacks to specific groups and countries. Australia also has unrivalled networks across much of the Pacific. Shifting to Japan, its size, location and regional economic weight gives it unique insights into China and Chinese influence in Southeast Asia. Tokyo\u2019s trailblazing approach to economic security provides a novel perspective on protecting critical industries and technologies from information warfare.<\/p>\n The explainer recommends that these strengths be brought together in a joint counter-disinformation mission, endorsed by national leaders and embedded in bilateral coordination mechanisms. Rather than pursuing full intelligence integration, Australia and Japan should establish a bilateral counter-disinformation cell, initially operating virtually. The mission priorities would include establishing a shared taxonomy of hostile information activity; tracking recurring disinformation narratives across the Indo-Pacific; agreeing thresholds for coordinated public attribution; and developing joint protocols for responding to disinformation that threatens key national activities, such as elections and referenda<\/a>, and crisis preparedness<\/a>.<\/p>\n The report envisions the mission leads in both countries would be senior officials with the authority to coordinate counter-disinformation work across intelligence, foreign affairs, defence, home affairs, electoral integrity and strategic communications agencies. These operations would need legislative oversight and democratic safeguards, developed in part through stronger engagement between Australia\u2019s Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and its counterparts in the Japanese Diet.<\/p>\n The report also proposes a standing Australia\u2013Japan forum on information integrity, bringing together officials, technology companies, media, think tanks and civil society. It should include experts on the conduct of elections. If properly resourced, the forum could produce annual narrative-risk assessments and conduct crisis simulations. The Australia\u2013Japan leadership dialogue announced<\/a> in May could help lay the groundwork, but an inclusive forum dedicated to the counter-disinformation mission is also required.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This article is a product of a partnership<\/a> between ASPI and Japan Nexus Intelligence addressing state-sponsored information operations and hybrid threats in the Indo-Pacific. The ASPI explainer mentioned in the article can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Counter-disinformation should become a bilateral Australia\u2013Japan priority, an explainer published today by ASPI and Japan Nexus Intelligence argues.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,363053,128412,27620,941,44],"class_list":["post-760109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-japan-relations","tag-disinformation","tag-intelligence","tag-japan","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}