## (3) Russian Operations Directed at Japan

At a December 2008 celebration for the “Day of National Security Agent of the Russian Federation,” Russian President Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin both made statements stressing the importance of intelligence activities for the political decision-making process. Comments made included “State leaders always highly praise the bravery of security agents, and their ability to predict the future as well as expose hidden threats” and “The highly reliable information provided by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) plays an extremely important role when making political or military decisions.”

Russian intelligence agents have engaged repeatedly in illegal information collection activity entering countries disguised as Ambassadors to the Russian Embassy or trade representatives. Detection of illegal activity acts continues in Japan as well, with such cases in 2005, 2006, and 2008.

The police will continuously aim to strengthen their information gathering and analysis capabilities, and crack down severely on illegal acts so as to keep Japan’s national interests from being undermined by these crimes.

## (4) Countermeasures for the Illegal Export of Materials Related to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)

1) International Awareness Regarding the Proliferation of Materials Related to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)

At the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit held in 2008, each leader stated that they were making every effort to overcome the threat of WMDs and their proliferation and prevent WMDs from falling into the hands of terrorists. The importance of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) $ ^{1} $ was well recognized at the summit.

Given the increasing interest being shown in the proliferation of materials related to WMDs from a security perspective, the police are actively participating in international initiatives. In September 2008, the NPA and the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Terrorism Division of the Osaka Prefectural Police Department participated in “PSI Maritime Interdiction Exercise ‘Maru’” hosted by New Zealand. Working together with customs officers, participants investigated and identified materials related to WMDs which had been discovered inside transport containers.

## 2 ) Seizure of illegally Imported Substances

The police are aggressively working to seize any materials related to WMDs which are illegally imported into Japan. In 2008, 1 such case was cleared.

The cases cleared up until now have shown that materials are being transferred through third-party countries before entering Japan. Given concerns that methods for illegal importation are only going to become even more nefarious and clever, the police are exerting efforts to correctly understand and analyze the current situation of this issue in and outside of Japan, and strengthening linkages with relevant organizations through active information exchanges. The police will continue to bolster efforts to seize materials related to WMDs before they are illegally imported into Japan.

Note 1: PSI is an abbreviation of Proliferation Security Initiative. An approach for participating countries to jointly consider and realize possible measures, within the limits of international and domestic legislations, to prevent transfer or transportation of weapons of mass destruction, missiles and related materials, in order to prevent the proliferation of such weaponry which pose a threat to peace and stability of the international world.