Japan's prime minister was not told for 18 months that a diplomat who committed suicide in China could have leaked secret codes, raising concerns over Tokyo's crisis management, a paper said yesterday.
Japan has accused China of blackmailing the diplomat, who killed himself in May 2004. The allegations have further strained ties between the Asian neighbors.
A Japanese Cabinet investigation produced a report two months after the diplomat's death that warned confidential information might have been leaked to Chinese agents, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
The report, submitted to the Cabinet's deputy chief secretary, also urged the government to further investigate the death of the 46-year-old diplomat, Japan's largest-circulation daily said.
But the report did not immediately reach Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, said the daily, which faulted the handling of the probe by bureaucrats of the central offices.
Koizumi first learned of the suicide in December last year and later said he did not believe any sensitive material was leaked.
"We'll handle information, including from the past, more appropriately," he told reporters.
"This issue is already closed," Koizumi said. "I've decided not to say more about it."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe declined comment on the report but said: "I think we need to continue checking on how certain information is analyzed and communicated."
The diplomat committed suicide after allegedly being wooed by a bar hostess and then pressured by a Chinese agent to divulge secret communication codes.
The suicide has aggravated already strained bilateral ties, with Japan labeling China "ruthless" and Beijing telling Tokyo not to "instigate trouble."
Relations between Japan and China have deteriorated in part due to China's charges that Japan has not atoned for its militarism in the first half of the 20th century.
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