[10] The CIRO was created by the Allied Forces through the formation of the Prime Ministers's Research Office (内閣総理大臣官房調査室, Naikakusōri Daijin Kanbō Chōsa-Shitsu) in April 1952 with Jun Murai as the first director in an attempt to replicate its structure after the CIA.

[7] In August 2007, discussions of intelligence reforms through the paper Improvement of Counter-Intelligence Functions resulted in the establishment of the Counterintelligence Center.

[11] It's been suggested that the CIC can be used as the basis for the creation of an actual external intelligence agency similar to the CIA.

[12] In 2013, CIRO satellite imagery analysis was used to assist NGOs in Tacloban for reconstruction work in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.

[14][15] In 2016, the business magazine Facta reported that the government of Shinzo Abe had directed the CIRO to spy on a legal council connected to David Kaye, who as U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression stated "deep and genuine concern" on declining media independence in Japan.