The Tokyo District Court on April 9 determined that Japan and the United States had secret pacts over the 1972 reversion of Okinawa and ordered the state to disclose related diplomatic documents. Twenty-five journalists and academics had filed a lawsuit calling for the disclosure in March 2009 when Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone of the Liberal Democratic Party was foreign minister.
The court said the Foreign Ministry, which had insisted that that the documents did not exist, was insincere and neglected people's right to know. It thus awarded ¥100,000 in damages to each plaintiff. It is significant that the court clearly upheld the people's right to know and severely criticized the government and bureaucrats for concealing the existence of important policy-related documents.
At issue in the trial were diplomatic documents related to the following three points: $4 million paid by Japan to restore land used for military purposes to its original state; $16 million paid by Japan to move a Voice of America relay station abroad; and Japan's financial obligations above the publicly acknowledged $320 million.