Photo/Illutration Ryo Sakai, chief of staff of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, at a news conference in April (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The head of the Maritime Self-Defense Force intends to resign to take responsibility for a spate of incidents where unqualified MSDF staff were allowed to handle classified national security information, sources said.

The breaches occurred aboard more than 10 vessels, the sources said, adding that some senior officers turned a blind eye to the situation.

They said Ryo Sakai had informed Defense Minister Minoru Kihara that he plans to quit as MSDF chief of staff.

The illegal practices could have continued for nearly 10 years, the sources added.

The Law on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, which took effect in 2014, stipulates that only those with proper security clearance can handle “specially designated secrets,” including matters concerning defense and foreign affairs.

The screening is intended to disqualify those with a criminal record, debt or psychiatric problems as well as excessive drinking habits, among other things.

However, it emerged that MSDF members who had not received the required security clearance were assigned to posts that deal with specially designated secrets.

This situation occurred aboard more than 10 of the approximately 60 vessels belonging to the Fleet Escort Force, government sources said.

The unqualified personnel handled specially designated secrets, such as navigational information on ships that appears on displays at the bridge or combat information center inside the vessel, the sources said.

No leakage of classified information outside the SDF has been confirmed, the sources said.

Even so, the Defense Ministry is considering punishing successive senior officials of the C41 Department, which oversees specially designated secrets in the Maritime Staff Office, and the captains of the vessels involved, the sources said.

The MSDF announced in April that the captain of the destroyer Inazuma in 2022 named an unqualified member as an official tasked with handling specially designated secrets.

Subsequent investigations by the MSDF found that similar practices occurred aboard many other vessels, including an Aegis-equipped destroyer.

In many cases, senior officers failed to check whether members who were newly assigned to posts that deal with specially designated secrets had received the required security clearance, the sources said.

In some cases, even after members were found to be unqualified, the senior officers allowed them to handle classified information, the sources said.

As of the end of last year, about 135,000 people had been authorized to handle specially designated secrets after clearing security screening, according to the Cabinet Secretariat.

Employees of the Defense Ministry and the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, an external organ of the ministry, accounted for about 122,000, or about 90 percent, of that number.

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