Mitutoyo Corp. developed computer software in the early 1990s to make its three-dimensional measuring machines appear less accurate so they could bypass Japan's export regulations on products that can be used in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, investigative sources said Monday.
Developers of the software and officials of Mitutoyo, which manufactures precision measuring devices, used an in-house code name, COCOM, to refer to the software, the sources at the Metropolitan Police Department said.
COCOM is an acronym for Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls, an international accord that put an embargo on Western high-tech exports to Eastern bloc nations. The deal was replaced by the Wassenaar Arrangement in 1995.