Civilian and military police searched the homes and workplaces of Japanese navy officers and a destroyer yesterday in connection with leaked classified data on high-tech AEGIS radar systems, Defense Ministry officials said.
Yesterday's searches follow a series of investigations earlier this year into leaked intelligence on the missile defense system that Japan shares with the US.
The ministry officials declined to give details on the nature of the classified data, but said: "Information must not be leaked at the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces tasked with ensuring the safety of the nation."
The investigators searched the 4,650-tonne destroyer Shimakaze over the leaked secrets, Kyodo news agency said.
The leaked data, which included "special defense secrets," had been prepared for use in training courses for cadets who would be dealing with high-tech anti-air defence systems on AEGIS ships, Kyodo said.
Kyodo quoted investigators as saying that they suspected the navy officers had violated provisions protecting secrets related to the Japan-US mutual defense agreement.
Japanese police would not confirm the reports, saying only that investigations were under way.
``We want to find through these investigations as much as we can about what the exact situation is, while taking steps to prevent such a thing from happening again,'' newly appointed Defense Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters.
A scandal had erupted earlier this year when Japanese naval officers were found to have leaked classified information about the AEGIS radar system used on US and Japanese missile-defense capable ships. Japan has pledged to improve its handling of defense data.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates voiced his concerns when he met his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kyuma in Washington in late April, and Kyuma promised to take steps to prevent any recurrence of such leaks.
Earlier this month, Japan and the US sealed a deal which Japanese officials said would facilitate the exchange of classified information.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that investigators were also raiding the homes and offices of senior navy officials in the city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo.
Prefectural and navy investigators believe that computer disks containing classified data were illegally copied and circulated among dozens of students and instructors at a naval academy, the First Service School, in the western city of Etajima.
The case first surfaced in March, when police found one of the disks at the home of a Japanese naval officer in Kanagawa during a separate investigation into his Chinese wife's immigration status.
Japan deployed its first advanced US-developed Patriot missiles this year.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS