The Origin of Information Science

the word for information in Japan has a military origin

In the Meiji Era, the modernization period in Japan in the late 19th century, when a lot of new terms and concepts were imported from European countries and North America, the scholars struggled to invent new Japanese words to translate those new imported ones. Jouhou is among these new invented words. According to some authors the word jouhou was used as Japanese translation of several different imported terms such as renseignement, intelligence, Nachricht. The combination of jou and hou seems to have been a result of a rather arbitrary choice. In addition, the usage of jouhou at the beginning of the Meiji Era was mainly confined to the military terminology. This means that the concept of  jouhou of the Meiji Era seems to have little in common  with the usage of jouhou today.

http://www.capurro.de/iie_dialogue.html