A new report published jointly by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and Japan Nexus Intelligence argues that countering state-sponsored disinformation should become a top-tier bilateral priority for Australia and Japan. The explainer advocates for the formal appointment of dedicated mission leads within Australia’s Office of National Intelligence and Japan’s newly established National Intelligence Agency to spearhead these efforts. By aligning their intelligence and strategic communication apparatus, the two nations aim to safeguard their democratic processes against an increasingly aggressive information environment.
The urgency for this partnership stems from a persistent information offensive directed at Japan, particularly following the rise of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Beijing has utilized a sophisticated blend of overt state media propaganda, social media influencer networks, and inauthentic bot accounts to amplify narratives designed to undermine Japanese policy. Despite this pressure, Takaichi’s recent electoral victory provides a clear mandate for institutional reform, including the creation of a ministerial-level National Intelligence Committee intended to streamline Japan’s previously fragmented intelligence landscape.
Predictably, China’s foreign affairs establishment has lashed out at these reforms, characterizing them as a return to imperial-era militarism. By claiming that Japan’s internal administrative restructuring is a matter of international concern, Beijing has effectively challenged Japan’s sovereign right to self-governance. This tactic is strikingly familiar to the Australian experience; Canberra faced years of economic coercion and hybrid interference following the introduction of its own foreign interference legislation in 2018. This commonality proves that for Beijing, information warfare is not merely an auxiliary tool, but a fundamental pillar of its statecraft.
Australia and Japan possess highly complementary strengths to combat these threats. Australia offers world-leading legislative frameworks, such as its transparency register for foreign influence, and maintains deep-rooted intelligence networks across the Pacific. Conversely, Japan’s strategic geography, economic scale, and novel approaches to economic security provide critical, high-level insights into how China projects influence across Southeast Asia. By pooling these resources, both nations can move beyond reactive measures toward a more proactive, combined defense of their information integrity.
To implement this, the report recommends the creation of a bilateral counter-disinformation cell. Rather than attempting a full-scale integration of intelligence services, this virtual unit would focus on developing a shared taxonomy of hostile activities, tracking regional disinformation trends, and establishing agreed-upon protocols for public attribution of hybrid attacks. Such a framework would allow for coordinated responses to interference in national elections and other critical events, ensuring that both nations can respond with a unified voice to threats against their democratic stability.
Finally, the initiative calls for robust democratic oversight and the establishment of a standing Australia–Japan forum on information integrity. By bringing together officials, technology firms, media outlets, and civil society experts, this forum would facilitate annual risk assessments and rigorous crisis simulations. While high-level leadership dialogues have already laid the groundwork, the report emphasizes that dedicated, long-term cooperation is essential to deter Beijing’s hybrid threats and protect the long-term national security interests of both Indo-Pacific powers.