A ruling Tuesday in Tokyo District Court that dismissed a damages suit filed by a former Mainichi Shimbun reporter defies common sense because of the gap between the ruling and the known facts, although the ruling has its own logic.
While covering Japan-U.S. negotiations on Okinawa's reversion to Japanese rule, the reporter, Mr. Takichi Nishiyama, obtained photocopies of diplomatic documents pointing to a secret agreement by Japan to shoulder $4 million (worth about 1.2 billion yen at the time) in costs to convert areas used by the U.S. military back into farmland. In a June 1971 newspaper report, Mr. Nishiyama hinted at the existence of a bilateral secret pact but did not refer to the documents.
In March 1972, Japan Socialist Party lawmakers produced photocopies of the documents in the Diet. Mr. Nishiyama, who had passed photocopies to one of the lawmakers, was eventually found guilty of violating the National Public Service Law -- for persuading a female Foreign Ministry worker, also convicted, to give him copies of classified documents.