The key facts
- Kyodo reports 41 items of collected data, including address, phone number and physical description
- Defense Minister Koizumi said no improper actions were identified and did not confirm the existence of the reports
- Prime Minister Takaichi previously rejected claims about Tokyo's intelligence activities in Russia
What Kyodo reports
An intelligence unit of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Forces collected information about residents of the country without disclosing that they were communicating with military intelligence. This was reported by the Kyodo agency, citing former members of the unit and a copy of a report it obtained. According to the agency, the military recorded, among other things, the political views, religious beliefs and sexual preferences of those questioned.
How it worked in practice
The report Kyodo writes about contained 41 items: address, phone number, place of work and physical description. Former members told the agency that they got acquainted with people from Southeast Asian and African countries living in Japan, as well as with Japanese researchers; one of the goals was to find people willing to cooperate with the intelligence service. According to them, contact plans and pretexts for meeting were agreed in advance with superiors. The information collected was stored within the unit, and the reports themselves, according to Kyodo, were not registered as official documents. The agency suggests that such methods may have violated Japan's personal data protection law.
The authorities' reaction and the Russian context
Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi previously said that the ministry had not identified any improper actions, and did not confirm the existence of the reports. Kyodo's publication came amid diplomatic tension: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi rejected claims about Tokyo's intelligence activities in Russia, answering a journalist's question after the detention of a Japanese correspondent on Sakhalin — Life.ru reported on this. The existence of the reports themselves remains officially unconfirmed: the publication is based on the words of former members and a copy of the document obtained by the agency.
