Police raid Japanese base over suspected leak

From Navy Times

Police raid Japanese base over suspected leak

By Mari Yamaguchi - The Associated Press

Posted : Tuesday Aug 28, 2007 7:18:28 EDT

TOKYO — Police raided a Japanese naval base Tuesday to investigate an alleged leak of sensitive warship technology data shared between Japan and the U.S., defense officials said.

The leak involves U.S.-developed technology for the Aegis radar systems used on several Japanese destroyers and U.S. warships carrying missile interceptors. Investigators believe the information was circulated among Japanese naval academy students.

The scandal has embarrassed Japanese defense officials at a time when Tokyo and Washington have been accelerating their joint missile defense system, amid fears raised by North Korea’s testing of missiles and a nuclear device.

Civilian and navy police searched for evidence Tuesday at places including a main naval base in the southern city of Sasebo, said Hiromitsu Hanada, spokesman for the Maritime Self-Defense Forces in Tokyo.

“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.

Police declined to comment on the raid.

Public broadcaster NHK reported that investigators were also raiding the homes and offices of senior navy officials in the city of Yokosuka.

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.

Authorities suspect the information was leaked in violation of a secrecy law, which comes under a Japan-U.S. security pact, NHK said. It said they are trying to determine the route of the information leak.

Tuesday’s search was the second over the scandal. Authorities had earlier raided the navy academy, Hanada said.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing, Hanada said.

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 U.S.-developed Patriot missiles this year, and plans to introduce the SM-3 intercepters on its destroyers over the next few years, including one later this year.