they are based on access to the correct information, without which effective and profitable decisions are not possible. The Japanese word for information, joho, means having a purpose and a method (Baumard, 1994, 35). In the United States information is seen more as a commodity. Economic espionage in Japan is very sophisticated and diverse; its mission is to make Japan even more prosperous and competitive. Prior to World War II, Japan had a very effective military espionage apparatus, which was dismantled when the peace treaty ending the war prohibited the re-establishment of a Japanese intelligence agency. Many Japanese intelligence officers found employment in Japanese trading companies. To this day Japan does not have an intelligence agency to conduct economic espionage, but relies instead on its trade ministries to collect economic information through mostly nonintrusive methods. During the 1950s the Japanese government began subsidizing the worldwide travel of up to 10,000 Japanese businessmen each year to gather foreign technological information. It has recently been estimated that 80 percent of all Japanese intelligence assets have been directed toward gathering information about the United States and to a lesser degree, Europe (Richter, 1995, 8). Not only is economic espionage performed externally, it is performed internally as well. The domestic Public Security Investigation Agency is charged with conducting "bag job" operations against targeted American ...
