Japan wants an MI6-style spy agency to keep watch on other countries
Hostage crisis prompts government to consider overseas intelligence body as Shinzo Abe seeks to bolster the nation's security capabilities
Japan is looking into creating an overseas intelligence agency modelled on Britain's MI6 spy service, ruling party lawmakers say, 70 years after Allied victors dismantled Japan's fearsome military intelligence apparatus following the second world war.
A new foreign intelligence agency would be integral to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plans to relax the post-war constitution's limits on the military's ability to operate overseas.
The idea that Japan's fragmented intelligence community needs a makeover has also gained momentum since the killing of two Japanese captives by Islamic State militants in Syria earlier this year showed how much Tokyo relied on friendly countries for information.
Abe has already set up a US-style National Security Council and enacted strict state secrets legislation, and is now working to lift a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defence, or militarily aiding an ally under attack.
"To become a 'normal country', an intelligence agency is vital," said Takushoku University professor Takashi Kawakami, using a phrase referring to shedding constitutional constraints that conservatives say limit Japan's ability to defend itself.
Lawmakers in Abe's Liberal Democratic Party hope to draft proposals in the autumn after visiting countries such as Britain.
If the LDP and the government conclude a new agency is needed, legislation could be enacted next year, LDP lawmaker Takeshi Iwaya said in a recent interview.