Japan must integrate its information-gathering operations so it can prevent terrorist attacks, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday.
"Each government office's capability has improved and much information comes in. But they do not deal with it in a uniform manner," Ishiba said on a Fuji TV talk show.
"We must study again how to integrate (the operations)," he said of the lack of an integrated information-gathering system within the government.
"It's not OK to just collect information," Ishiba said. "We must establish a system of sorting out valuable information, analyzing it and sending accurate information to the prime minister."
Okamoto to resign
Yukio Okamoto, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's foreign policy adviser, will soon resign from his post, government sources said Sunday.
The 58-year-old former Foreign Ministry official has decided to step down as Japan's role in the reconstruction of Iraq is now on course, and he has already told Koizumi of his intentions, the sources said.
The opposition had been grilling him for allowing an engineer from a private company for which he is a part-time board member to conduct a study on the rebuilding of an Iraqi cement factory as a government official.