Japan is creating its first centralized intelligence agency since WWII, with FBI backing, to counter espionage and cyber threats posed by China and Russia.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pushing through legislation to establish the country’s first centralised intelligence agency since the second world war, driven by concerns that its existing set-up is too fragmented to keep pace with espionage, cyberthreats and “grey zone” operations. The plan, recently endorsed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, would transform the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO) into a central hub, drawing in analysts, technologists and...