{"id":34383,"date":"2018-05-20T07:54:25","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T12:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34383"},"modified":"2018-05-20T07:54:25","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T12:54:25","slug":"the-untold-story-of-japans-secret-spy-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34383","title":{"rendered":"The Untold Story of Japan’s Secret Spy Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: NHK<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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THE UNTOLD STORY OF JAPAN\u2019S SECRET SPY AGENCY<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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EVERY WEEK IN<\/u> Tokyo\u2019s Ichigaya district, about two miles east of the bright neon lights and swarming crowds in the heart of Shibuya, a driver quietly parks a black sedan-style car outside a gray office building. Before setting off on a short 10-minute drive south, he picks up a passenger who is carrying an important package: top-secret intelligence reports, destined for the desks of the prime minister\u2019s closest advisors.<\/p>\n

Known only as \u201cC1,\u201d the office building is located inside a high-security compound that houses Japan\u2019s Ministry of Defense. But it is not an ordinary military facility \u2013 it is a secret spy agency headquarters for the Directorate for Signals Intelligence, Japan\u2019s version of the National Security Agency.<\/p>\n

The directorate has a history that dates back to the 1950s; its role is to eavesdrop on communications. But its operations remain so highly classified that the Japanese government has disclosed little about its work \u2013 even the location of its headquarters. Most Japanese officials, except for a select few of the prime minister\u2019s inner circle, are kept in the dark about the directorate\u2019s activities, which are regulated by a limited legal framework and not subject to any independent oversight.<\/p>\n

Now, a new investigation<\/a> by the Japanese broadcaster NHK \u2014 produced in collaboration with The Intercept \u2014 reveals for the first time details about the inner workings of Japan\u2019s opaque spy community. Based on classified documents and interviews with current and former officials familiar with the agency\u2019s intelligence work, the investigation shines light on a previously undisclosed internet surveillance program and a spy hub in the south of Japan that is used to monitor phone calls and emails passing across communications satellites.<\/p>\n

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Night view of the C1 building, inside Japan\u2019s Ministry of Defense compound in Ichigaya.
\nPhoto: NHK<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo: NHK THE UNTOLD STORY OF JAPAN\u2019S SECRET SPY AGENCY EVERY WEEK IN Tokyo\u2019s Ichigaya district, about two miles east of the bright neon lights and swarming crowds in the heart of Shibuya, a driver quietly parks a black sedan-style car outside a gray office building. Before setting off on a short 10-minute drive south, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[452,5570,15668,746,765,5567],"class_list":["post-34383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-japan","tag-mass-surveillance","tag-ryan-gallagher","tag-spying","tag-surveillance","tag-the-intercept"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34384,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34383\/revisions\/34384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}