May 22, 2007:
Japan is having a problem convincing
the United States that it is safe to sell Japan weapons containing highly
secret technology. That's because of an ongoing incident, where details of the U.S. Aegis naval air
defense system have been found copied and passed around a Japanese Navy school
(the First Service School in Etajima.) Japan has always been strict about
American military technology it has been entrusted with. But the current
scandal apparently goes back nearly ten years. In 1998, an instructor at the
First Service School prepared a CDROM disk of instructional material, and put a
lot of classified material on it. That was a major lapse in security, but no
one noticed it. Like most Japanese military schools, the students assumed that
most of what they learned was useful to potential enemies, and should be kept
away from civilians and foreigners. But the CD was copied again and again, and
was even given to some students, who then took it with them when they left the
school.
The security leak was only discovered when the home
of a petty officer, who worked at the school, was raided. The police were
investigating the man's wife, a Chinese woman whose immigration status was
suspect. During the course of the raid, the Aegis CD was found, someone checked
to see if the data on it was classified, and it was. Things went downhill from
there, as it was discovered how long ago the suspect CD had been created, and
how many copies were out there (no one knew for sure.)
Japan is currently trying to convince the United
States to sell it F-22 fighters, which contain even more valuable military
secrets. It's all very embarrassing.