July 6, 2016
‘Morning breeze’ column
It was three years ago that the international community was shocked by the revelation that the U.S. National Security Agency had routinely spied on and bugged conversations and information in regard to electronic networks around the globe by using its clandestine surveillance program. Recently, an interview with former NSA employee turned whistleblower Edward Snowden was published in Japan’s major weekly magazine, Sunday Mainichi. The interview indicated the horrific situation Japan is put into under the Japan-U.S. alliance.
In the interview, Snowden said that in 2009 he was assigned to the U.S. Yokota base in Tokyo to conduct surveillance on Chinese cyber-spying. With this experience, he found that Japan-U.S. relations are based on unequal footing. As an example, Snowden cited the state secret protection law which Japan established in 2013. The former NSA contractor said that the creation of the law was a U.S.-designed plan aiming to expand the NSA’s monitoring activities in Japan.
Since at least the first Abe Cabinet which was inaugurated in September 2006, the NSA began wiretapping telephone conversations of Japan’s government ministries and large corporations for the purpose of gathering information regarding Japan’s policies on finance, trade, and environment issues. That information included classified information such as Prime Minister Abe’s proposal regarding the issue of climate change during his visit to Washington.
In the Sunday Mainichi interview, Snowden warned that government’s surveillance is deeply connected with wars and talked about the value of the war-renouncing Japanese Constitution.
Past related article:
> US has lost face in wiretapping scandal [November 1, 2013]
It was three years ago that the international community was shocked by the revelation that the U.S. National Security Agency had routinely spied on and bugged conversations and information in regard to electronic networks around the globe by using its clandestine surveillance program. Recently, an interview with former NSA employee turned whistleblower Edward Snowden was published in Japan’s major weekly magazine, Sunday Mainichi. The interview indicated the horrific situation Japan is put into under the Japan-U.S. alliance.
In the interview, Snowden said that in 2009 he was assigned to the U.S. Yokota base in Tokyo to conduct surveillance on Chinese cyber-spying. With this experience, he found that Japan-U.S. relations are based on unequal footing. As an example, Snowden cited the state secret protection law which Japan established in 2013. The former NSA contractor said that the creation of the law was a U.S.-designed plan aiming to expand the NSA’s monitoring activities in Japan.
Since at least the first Abe Cabinet which was inaugurated in September 2006, the NSA began wiretapping telephone conversations of Japan’s government ministries and large corporations for the purpose of gathering information regarding Japan’s policies on finance, trade, and environment issues. That information included classified information such as Prime Minister Abe’s proposal regarding the issue of climate change during his visit to Washington.
In the Sunday Mainichi interview, Snowden warned that government’s surveillance is deeply connected with wars and talked about the value of the war-renouncing Japanese Constitution.
Past related article:
> US has lost face in wiretapping scandal [November 1, 2013]
