A PHOTOGRAPH OF a wooden plaque with handwritten characters marked the launch of Japan’s new “National Intelligence Bureau” (NIB) on July 31st. It was an appropriately understated(低调的，不张扬的) reveal for a big overhaul of Japanese spookery(间谍活动，情报工作).
一块刻有手写文字的木牌照片标志着日本新“国家情报局”（NIB）于7月31日成立。对于日本间谍活动的重大改革来说，这是一个恰如其分的低调亮相。
Japan’s intelligence apparatus(机构，组织；设备) has long been fragmented and feeble(虚弱的，无力的). Since the country’s defeat in the second world war, legal and political constraints have made it hard to counter adversaries snooping around inside Japan and to run human intelligence (HUMINT) operations abroad.(自二战战败以来，法律和政治限制使其难以应对国内间谍和海外情报行动。) Japan’s prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, calls the creation of the NIB, along with the establishment of a new National Intelligence Council, the first steps of broader reforms necessary to navigate(驾驭，应对（复杂情况）) an increasingly dangerous world.
日本的情报机构长期以来一直支离破碎、软弱无力。自二战战败以来，法律和政治上的限制使其难以应对在日本境内窥探的对手，也难以在海外开展人力情报（HUMINT）行动。日本首相高市早苗称，成立NIB以及建立新的国家安全委员会，是在日益危险的世界中航行所必需的更广泛改革的第一步。
Japan was once a formidable(强大的，令人敬畏的) intelligence player. During the Russo-Japanese war in the early 20th century, Japanese forces cracked codes(破译密码), ran agents across the Far East and funded anti-tsarist agitators(煽动者，鼓动者) in Europe; during the second world war, “special duty units” undertook covert(秘密的，隐蔽的) actions across Asia.
日本曾经是一个强大的情报参与者。在20世纪初的日俄战争期间，日军破译密码、在远东各地安插特工，并资助欧洲的反沙皇煽动者；在第二次世界大战期间，“特别任务部队”在亚洲各地进行了秘密行动。