Disclosure of papers on Okinawa reversion requested+

TOKYO, March 16 Kyodo -
A group of scholars and writers filed a lawsuit Monday, demanding the
government disclose documents that they say indicate the existence of a secret
Japan-U.S. agreement over cost burdens for the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to
Japanese sovereignty from the United States.

In the suit filed with the Tokyo District Court, the 25 plaintiffs targeted
mainly three documents, including one that indicates Japan secretly shouldered
$4 million in costs the United States was supposed to pay to restore Okinawa
land plots that U.S. forces had used back to the original farmland.
The three papers, compiled between 1969 and 1971, were declassified by the U.S.
government in the early 2000s, however, the Japanese government has
consistently denied the existence of the secret pact.
Despite Tokyo's denial, ''disclosed information in the United States underlines
the existence of the secret pact. We hope the Japanese government will first
admit to concluding the secret bilateral agreement at the court,'' said
Yasuhiro Okudaira, one of the plaintiffs and professor emeritus at the
University of Tokyo.
Last year, the group asked the government to disclose the documents, but the
foreign and finance ministries rejected the request in October on grounds that
they are not in possession of them, prompting the plaintiffs to file the suit.
They argue that the claim that the government does not keep the documents is
''quite questionable'' as the papers carry the initials of high-ranking
negotiators of the two countries, indicating they are official administrative
documents.
The plaintiffs also say in the complaint that it is not necessary for the
Japanese government to maintain secrecy over the diplomatic talks any longer as
the papers have been made public in the United States.
The Japanese negotiator, Bunroku Yoshino, the Foreign Ministry's then American
Bureau chief, has said that one of the initials is his.
''Transparency and openness are the most important factors to secure
democracy,'' Hideo Shimizu, who heads the lawyers representing the plaintiffs,
told a press conference. ''It is a historic lawsuit to test the democracy in
Japan.''
The plaintiffs also demanded the state pay 100,000 yen in damages to each of
them, arguing their right to know was hurt by the government's decision not to
disclose the documents.
The issue of the secret pact over the Okinawa reversion has drawn public
attention since Takichi Nishiyama, a former Mainichi Shimbun reporter, filed a
damages suit in 2005, arguing he had to give up his career after he was
illegally convicted in the 1970s over his newsgathering activities on the
bilateral talks.
Nishiyama, now 77, was indicted for urging a Foreign Ministry secretary to
bring him classified documents about the negotiation process behind the
reversion in violation of the National Public Services Law. The accusation
stirred public criticism that it infringed on the people's right to know.
Through the litigation following his 30-year silence, he aimed at proving the
existence of the secret pact, but the Supreme Court rejected it last September
without referring to whether the pact existed.
Nishiyama is among the plaintiffs in the current suit.
Hisae Sawachi, a prominent writer joining the plaintiffs' group, said, ''I hope
we can question the responsibility of the state that ruined Mr. Nishiyama's
career as a journalist and troubled his life.''
==Kyodo