Defense Intelligence Headquarters The is the official signals intelligence agency of the Japanese government , under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Ministry of Defense . It is currently one of the biggest Japan ese intelligence agencies with its creation and structure modeled after the American Defense Intelligence Agency . History . Back in the 1980s , the former Japanese Defense Agency had several intelligence divisions with different duties . Among these intelligence division in the Defense Agency had included those from the Central Data Command Unit , the Joint Staff Council ' s Second Office and the three branches of the Japan Self - Defense Forces . A supposed plan to integrate the intelligence divisions of the three JSDF branches started in 1988 before lack of cooperation and subordination ended it . Plans to consolidate all the intelligence bureaus of the old Defense Administration into one agency had started in the 1990s after the Diet of Japan had passed a law on May 1996 , calling for the creation of a central military intelligence agency before the DIH was eventually established on January 20 , 1997 after intelligence units from the JSDF , Japanese Defense Agency and the Joint Staff council are united with the appointment of Lieutenant General Kunimi Masahiro as the agency ' s first commanding officer . Initially , DIH civilian and military staff members were numbered at 1 , 580 with a planned manpower of 2 , 000 personnel before it reached its current manpower of 2 , 300 staff members . In 2011 , the manpower is 1 , 907 members Spy satellites had been planned for launch in 1998 as part of augmenting the DIH ' s intelligence gathering capabilities . Though two were able to launch into space , two more were destroyed in a botch attempt to send them to space . In 2005 , the DIH has suffered its first internal leak of classified information when a Colonel in the JASDF had been arrested for allegedly leaking information regarding the accident of a People ' s Liberation Army Navy Submarine that took place in the same year in the South China Sea The DIH had announced in 2006 that a liaison office was established in Washington , D . C . with the National Security Agency . Command . The DIH is under the jurisdiction of the Joint Staff Council and is controlled by the Defense Intelligence Committee , which is made up of the heads of the JGSDF , JMSDF and JASDF with the Joint Staff Council chairman alongside the Japanese Defense Minister and Senior Vice - Minister of Defense . Command of the DIH was given directly to the Japanese Defense Minister on March 2006 . Organization . A number of divisions were established under the DIH , including the following : Role . The main role of the DIH is to collect information and analyse for planning defense and operation policy . The agency collect information from open sources , signals and image intelligence as well as from other Japanese government ministries , Japan ese embassies and other affiliated ministries and organizations . In addition , they also gather intelligence through surveillance activities . Seal . The seal of the DIH consist of the following symbols : Pheasant - Quality of intelligence gathering at high speed . Red Oval shapes around Earth - Positions of Spy satellites . Lightning - Radio waves . Star - Section and Stations of the DIH . Known DIH directors . DIH directors are usually positioned by a Lieutenant General from the JGSDF / JASDF or a Vice Admiral from the JMSDF .