Japanese Intelligence Methods

It has been said with a reasonable element of truth that every Japanese citizen was either an agent or a potential agent of some part of the Japanese intelligence organization. Any Japaneseindividual could be called upon to engage in espionage, and no Jap was too unimportant to be used in an appropriate place in the intelligence system should circumstance so demand. With equal thoroughness, no item of fact was too insignificant to warrant consideration by the Japanese authorities. Yet...
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It has been said with a reasonable element of truth that every Japanese citizen was either an agent or a potential agent of some part of the Japanese intelligence organization. Any Japaneseindividual could be called upon to engage in espionage, and no Jap was too unimportant to be used in an appropriate place in the intelligence system should circumstance so demand. With equal thoroughness, no item of fact was too insignificant to warrant consideration by the Japanese authorities. Yet the universalJapanese espionage was carefully channeled and brought under the control of a few main agencies of the government.But despite attention to detail, and the rigid control exercised over all potential intelligence sources, the Japanese government did not produce an outstanding intelligence organization. While the work of intelligence agencies andindividuals in the field was often good, weaknesses among higher echelons in the past caused the Japanese to make some seriousstrategic blunders.Not unlike the late Nazi regime in Germany, the Japanesegovernment expected all its branches to participate to varyingdegrees in the collection and exploitation of intelligence. In Japan, however, the major portion of this activity was conducted by five principal agencies-the Second Bureau of the Army General Staff, the Military Affairs Bureau of the War Ministry, the Third Division of the Naval General Staff, the Foreign Office, and the Greater EastAsia Ministry.