Wikileaks says US spied on Japanese government, companies

Japan is the latest NSA target uncovered by WikiLeaks, which recently published documents implicating the agency in eavesdropping French, Saudi and German high-ranking officials.

The surveillance extends back at least eight years, Wikileaks said.

Today’s publication also contains NSA reports from intercepts of senior Japanese government officials.

A notation on one of the top-secret reports on climate change before the 2008 G-8 summit is marked for sharing with Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, according to WikiLeaks.

And yet we now know that the United States heard everything and read everything, and was passing around the deliberations of Japanese leadership to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK.

“The lesson for Japan is this: do not expect a global surveillance superpower to act with honor or respect. There is only one rule: there are no rules”.

The documents, marked “top secret”, reportedly show that the US was listening in on conversations at Japanese government ministries and offices. He added that ‘Japan will continue to employ all the necessary measures to protect (its) information.’.

Japanese lawmakers are debating the controversial bills that would expand the role of the military and could possibly see troops fighting overseas in defence of allies – chiefly the United States – for the first time since the end of World War II.

The NSA report detailed former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shigeru Ishiba’s talking points in anticipation of his meeting with the US Trade Representative on the sidelines of an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) event in Paris. Previous Wikileaks finds indicate the U.S. has spied on Germany, France and Brazil, all of which are allies.

WikiLeaks investigations editor Sarah Harrison speculated that climate change policy enacted by Japan, as well as the country’s industry, may well have been different had the NSA not spied on negotiations.

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