Diet library hid file on crimes by U.S. military

12 August 2008

by Kyodo News

At the Justice Ministry's request, the National Diet Library sometime between late May and early June deleted the listing for a document about a 1953 order immunizing U.S. military personnel from Japanese justice regarding minor crimes, the library and ministry admitted Monday.

The ministry in late May requested the library make the information inaccessible as "(Public viewing of the documents) potentially harms (Japan's) relations of trust with the United States," a ministry official said.

The move could provoke criticism from the standpoint of the public's right to information.

The outline of the document, which was obtained by Shoji Niihara, a researcher on Japan-U.S. relations, and Kyodo News, was reported earlier this month.

"We requested that the National Diet Library delist the material from the list of publicly accessible materials because we decided it is not appropriate to make it available as long as it is classified material," said an official in the Justice Ministry's Criminal Affairs Bureau.

The library explained the reason for the nondisclosure as "respecting the government's will" and said it is difficult to reopen public access to the material, which it had obtained in 1990 and opened to the public.

The document was compiled by the Criminal Affairs Bureau in 1972 and contains orders and instructions issued by the bureau and the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office since 1953 on the handling of cases involving U.S. military personnel.