Australia and Japan are both targets of state-linked disinformation designed to exploit historical grievances, domestic political divisions and alliance anxieties. Beijing’s reaction to Japan’s May 2026 intelligence reforms demonstrates that even legitimate democratic measures will be contested in the information domain.
The two countries bring complementary strengths to this challenge. Australia has developed a comparatively mature legislative, transparency and public-attribution architecture for countering foreign interference. Japan brings deep regional knowledge, particularly in relation to China, and is developing a more centralised intelligence capability through its new National Intelligence Council.
This ASPI Explainer argues that countering disinformation should become a standing mission of Australia–Japan cooperation. Anchored by Australia’s Office of National Intelligence and Japan’s new intelligence machinery, a focused bilateral partnership could deliver shared threat assessments, narrative tracking, agreed attribution thresholds, and joint election and crisis-resilience protocols.
The Explainer also proposes a standing Australia–Japan 1.5-track forum bringing together government, industry, media, academia and civil society. The objective is not to securitise the information space, but to protect the public trust, social cohesion and political space on which legitimate democratic debate and effective regional cooperation depend.
