Will the Democratic Party of Japan shine a light on the government's darkest security secrets if elected to power, and if so, how will this affect relations with the United States?

The DPJ, the largest opposition party and predicted winner of the Aug. 30 election, has pledged to disclose some of the secret pacts between Tokyo and Washington that were kept hidden from the public during decades of rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

But while some argue that putting such information into the public sphere is in line with the nature of democracy, others point out that declassifying Japan's worst-kept secret may come at a cost.