There has been a new development in a lawsuit filed by a group of citizens calling on the government to disclose diplomatic documents related to the 1972 reversion of Okinawa from U.S. to Japanese rule. One of the documents concerns an alleged secret financial concession to Washington — a payment by Tokyo of $4 million to help fund the conversion of U.S. military areas back to farmland.

The Tokyo District Court on Aug. 25 accepted the plaintiffs' request that the court let Mr. Bunroku Yoshino, former director general of the Foreign Ministry's American Bureau, testify as a witness. Mr. Yoshino, who was in charge of reversion negotiations, will appear before the court Dec. 1.

Having obtained a photocopy of a June 1971 note with the initials "BY" from the U.S. National Archives, the plaintiffs submitted it to the court as evidence. It mentions a $4 million secret payment. The plaintiffs think that the same note exists in Japan and demands that the state disclose it and any related documents. The state insists that no secret pact was made during the Okinawa reversion negotiations.

On Aug. 25 the plaintiffs' lawyers submitted to the court a written statement in which Mr. Yoshino acknowledges that he put the initials "BY" on the note and explains that the note committed Japan to shouldering the $4 million, which the United States would pay to Okinawan citizens as compensation for land that had been used by the U.S.

The court will have the Foreign Ministry permit Mr. Yoshino to testify as a witness — a necessary procedure because he was formerly a public servant. His testimony in court would undermine the state's position.

The state insists that the U.S. unilaterally made the note during negotiations as a record of events and that there is a strong possibility that it exists only in the U.S. The state should heed what Mr. Yoshino said in the written statement: Make documents linked to secret negotiations public after a certain period, as there is no need to conceal documents that have already been disclosed by the U.S.