Police raid Japan naval base over suspected leak of warship data
28 Aug 2007, 0839 hrs IST,AP
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TOKYO: Police raided a Japanese naval base on Tuesday to investigate an alleged leak of sensitive warship technology data shared between Japan and the US, defence officials said.

The leak involves US-developed technology for the Aegis radar systems used on several Japanese destroyers and US warships carrying missile interceptors. Investigators believe the information was circulated among Japanese Naval Academy students.

The scandal has embarrassed Japanese defence officials at a time when Tokyo and Washington have been accelerating their joint missile defence system, amid fears raised by North Korea's testing of missiles and a nuclear device.

Civilian and navy police searched for evidence Tuesday at places including a main naval base in the southern city of Sasebo, said Hiromitsu Hanada, spokesman for the Maritime Self-Defence Forces in Tokyo.

Police declined to comment on the raid. Public broadcaster NHK reported that investigators were also raiding the homes and offices of senior navy officials in the city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa prefecture (state), near Tokyo.

Investigators believe that computer disks containing classified data were illegally copied and circulated among dozens of students and instructors at a naval academy, the First Service School, in the western city of Etajima.

Authorities suspect the information was leaked in violation of a secrecy law, which comes under a Japan-US security pact, NHK said. It said they are trying to determine the route of the information leak.

Tuesday's search was the second over the scandal. Authorities had earlier raided the navy academy, Hanada said.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing, Hanada said.

The case first surfaced in March, when police found one of the disks at the home of a Japanese naval officer in Kanagawa during a separate investigation into his Chinese wife's immigration status.

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