How Putin turned Japan into a den of spies

The country’s weak espionage laws and flourishing high-tech industry have made it a crucial piece of the Russian war effort. About 90 percent of Russian missiles and drones contain Japanese components, according to Ukrainian government estimates. At the heart of the operation in Tokyo is a secretive Russian military intelligence unit known as the 20th Directorate, whose role has never been publicly disclosed. Posing as diplomats or businesspeople, its officers work to buy or steal battlefield technology and smuggle it into Russia, according to current and former officials at five Western intelligence agencies. The man overseeing the 20th Directorate’s operation…