In the summer of 2020, media reported that the Japanese government had announced its participation in Five Eyes, a framework led by the United States and composed of five countries to share sensitive information. MIRUPLUS recently asked Reda Hassaine, a former "Triple Spy" who roamed the intelligence services of three countries – Algeria, France and Britain's MI5 - as a man who monitored Islamist militants, about whether Japan should join Five Eyes and what "intelligence" is from his own intelligence experience. (The photograph is reprinted from Mr. Hassaine's SNS)

It all started in July 2020 when then-Defense Minister Taro Kono proposed that Japan become the "sixth eyes" at a symposium held in the UK. Kono's proposal is said to have been aimed at the Chinese government and is said to have suppressed China's moves to change the international order in various ways in order to become independent of the dollar economy.

In response, the UK’s newspaper, the Guardian said that the British government welcomed Japan's proposal to join Five Eyes, and that Japan's participation would expand strategic economic partnerships and increase its strategic stockpile of important minerals and medical supplies.

At any rate, Hassaine said as follows whether Japan should join.

“Firstly, the most of the Five Eyes do speak the same language, which is English. Japan not. In fact, I was very surprised in Japan that not many Japanese speaks English. I had troubles to communicate with people in restaurants, shops, malls, taxis, police stations etc. So, if you are talking only about the staff who speaks English of the security services collaborating with their counterparts, I believe it is a good idea as they are very well equipped, mainly electronically and they do have staff in most countries of the world.”

 Five Eyes is an intelligence agreement between five English-speaking countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is called the "UK-USA Agreement", and it is said that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) are joined by intelligence agencies from three countries below Canada to gather and share information around the world.

If Japan were to join as the sixth member, it would be required to develop laws such as the Anti-Espionage Act in Japan. In this regard, Hassaine replied:

 “Well, I don’t know if it has to be made law or not. However, I believe that it is an agreement between governments to share intelligences with third countries.”

“So, if it is not possible for the Japanese government to be able to sign treaties with foreign intelligence agencies, they should be able to do it by law.”

“It is for the security of Japan. And having as allies the Five Eyes is a very big plus. China and North Korea are just around the corner.”

 From his experience as a triple spy, we asked Hassaine what intelligence is.

“Regarding what it does mean intelligence, it is that you need to know everything about your enemies. Wars are won intelligently.”

“Germany lost the war only after the Five Eyes managed to listen to their communications.”

On top of that, he added:

“Nowadays, intelligences for the intelligence agencies come from the Medias, Electronically and less than 3% from people infiltrating their enemies. Also, speaking different languages, the languages of the enemies are game changer.”

◆Hassaine's Biography

 According to The Triple Spy, a nonfiction book that Hassaine's intelligence work, wrote by Takayasu Ogura, Hassaine was born in Algeria in 1961.In the Algerian civil war since 1992, a journalist (including Hassaine) targeted by Islamic extremist groups. He moved to the UK in 1994 as a collaborator of the country's intelligence services after being relentlessly threatened by armed Islamic groups (GIA) in Algeria, just as he was about to go to Paris to publish a weekly newspaper. He then worked as a spy in French and British intelligence services. 

Naoya Abe

Former Bloomberg News reporter and editor

Capitol Intelligence Group (Washington D.C.) Tokyo bureau chief

Currently working as Managing editor of the news site MIRUPLUS