Photo/Illutration The Defense Ministry in Tokyo’s Ichigaya district (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

One common trait reporters share is being inquisitive about everything.

In one recent case, however, reporters were denied disclosure of what a Maritime Self-Defense Force captain said as well as the contents of the information he is believed to have leaked. 

The strict rules are applied under the law protecting specially designated secrets.

The now-dismissed captain has been referred to prosecutors on suspicion of leaking classified information.

A retired vice admiral, to whom the secrets were divulged, told Kyodo News that during questioning by the MSDF’s police unit, he was given blacked-out documents.

“I didn’t know which parts were specially designated secrets,” he was quoted as saying. “I didn’t know what was what because (the documents) were completely blacked out, but I couldn’t get this through to them (MSDF police).”

It sounds like the law is meant to allow government officials to ask us whether we have learned about secrets while not telling us which parts are secret.

It has been nine years since the secrecy law was steamrolled through the Diet. The MSDF case marks the first time such a violation has been exposed.

It came as a fresh reminder of how uneasy I felt about the law at the time.

I understand that some information cannot be disclosed. But it makes me wonder whether the government arbitrarily applies the law and if our right to know is under threat.

I must say that the third-party checks are inadequate.

It is unreasonable to blindly trust decisions made by high-ranking government officials even if we are told to do so, especially after seeing how they falsified official documents in the scandal over Moritomo Gakuen, a private educational institution that bought state-owned land at a huge discount.

During the Vietnam War, Daniel Ellsberg, a former U.S. Department of Defense official, disclosed the classified Pentagon Papers, revealing to the public the injustices committed by the U.S. government.

He was accused of jeopardizing national security, but the charges were later dismissed.

A U.S. newspaper offered a lesson, saying to the effect that officials in charge of deciding which information should be classified are, in many cases, not interested in whether it is critical to national security; they are more interested in whether the information would be inconvenient for the government if it was exposed.

I don’t know if this also holds true for Japan because we know nothing about the contents of secret information, including in the MSDF case.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 29

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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