The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday rejected a damages suit filed by a former Mainichi Shimbun reporter who argued his career was ruined by an illegal conviction stemming from his scoop of a secret pact by Japan and the United States over the 1972 reversion of Okinawa.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Takichi Nishiyama, 75, was seeking 33 million yen in compensation and an apology from the state, saying his report that Japan secretly shouldered $4 million in costs for Okinawa's reversion to Japanese rule was backed up by the recent release of U.S. government documents and a retired Tokyo diplomat involved in the pact.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070328a1a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='302'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Takichi Nishiyama </B></FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>However, presiding Judge Kenichi Kato ruled that the 20-year filing period had passed, and thus Nishiyama's case could not proceed.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Disappointed that the judge failed even to admit the existence of the bilateral secret pact in his ruling, Nishiyama said he would file an appeal with the Tokyo High Court.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that Nishiyama was guilty of urging a Foreign Ministry secretary to give him classified documents about the negotiation process behind the reversion.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Nishiyama claimed in his damages suit that the conviction was unreasonable. He also alleged the state acted to suppress his probe into a serious government issue.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Even after the release of the U.S. documents in 2000 and 2002, which indicate Japan shouldered the $4 million cost the United States was supposed to pay to restore Okinawa's land to its original state, Japanese government officials have consistently denied the existence of the secret pact.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>In the damages suit, the government argued, 'The guilty verdict against the plaintiff –

will not be reversed even if the claimed secret pact really existed, and the plaintiff needs to accept it even if the guilty verdict damaged his honor."

Following the ruling, Nishiyama told a news conference, "I want to continue showing how the government illegally concluded the secret agreement with the United States through the court debates," indicating he will appeal Tuesday's decision.

The case drew public attention in 1972 when Nishiyama and his news source, the female secretary, were arrested and charged with violating the National Public Services Law.

But the focus of the case soon shifted from the people's right to know to a sex scandal when the indictment stated Nishiyama "secretly had an affair" with the secretary and talked her into procuring the classified internal documents for him.