New Delhi, July 13 -- TOKYO - Japan passed legislation this spring to establish the country's first centralized intelligence service since the end of the Second World War, a decision that the government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has tied partly to what it describes as reduced confidence in American security commitments under the Trump administration. The new body, a National Intelligence Council and a National Intelligence Bureau, formally replaces the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, an agency that has operated since 1952 but was never given legal authority to conduct intelligence collection or coordinate operations across Japanese ministries.

The reform represents the most significant change to Japan's intelligence arch...