PSIA (Public Security Intelligence Agency)

Origins and tasks

The PSIA was set up on 21 July 1952, when the Subversive Activities Prevention Act came into force; its job was to investigate subversive organisations and to apply for control measures against them. On 27 December 1999 the Act on the Control of Organizations Which Have Committed Acts of Indiscriminate Mass Murder came into force, giving the agency new tasks.¹

The Ministry of Justice describes the PSIA as “a core member of the Japanese intelligence community”. The agency collects and analyses information on, among other things, North Korea’s weapons programmes, China’s military build-up, international terrorism and territorial disputes, and passes it to government bodies, including the National Security Council.^2,3

The 1952 Act

Control measures and investigations must be kept to the minimum necessary and must not unduly restrict constitutional freedoms or trade-union activity (art. 3). The Act applies to organisations engaged in “terroristic subversive activity” – serious crimes such as insurrection, arson or murder committed for political ends (art. 4).⁴

Restricting an organisation’s activities for up to six months, or dissolving it, is decided by the Public Security Examination Commission, solely on application by the Director-General of the PSIA (arts 5, 7 and 11). PSIA officials conduct investigations within the limits of art. 3 (art. 27), and abuse of authority is an offence punishable by up to three years (art. 45).⁴

The Commission and the Aum Shinrikyo case

The Public Security Examination Commission is an external organ of the ministry: a chairperson and six members appointed by the Prime Minister with the consent of both Houses of the Diet, independent of instructions from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice.²

In January 1997 the Commission rejected an application to dissolve the Aum Shinrikyo sect under the 1952 Act. In January 2000, now under the 1999 Act, it placed the group under surveillance for three years and extended this several times, at least until January 2018. The PSIA monitors the organisation under both Acts.^3,5