US Govt Spied on Japanese Leaders and Businesses: WikiLeaks

TOKYO — The WikiLeaks website published documents Friday that it says shows the U.S. government spied on Japanese officials and companies.

The documents include what appear to be five U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) reports, four of which are marked top secret, that provide intelligence on Japanese positions on international trade and climate change. They date from 2007 to 2009.

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. It's not clear if it was actually shared.

The organization also posted what it says is an NSA list of 35 Japanese targets for telephone intercepts, including the Japanese Cabinet office, Bank of Japan officials, finance and trade ministry numbers, the natural gas division at Mitsubishi and the petroleum division at Mitsui.

The Japanese government and the two companies had no immediate response to the postings, which went up on the WikiLeaks website late afternoon Japan time.

The validity of the documents could not be independently verified, though WikiLeaks has released U.S. government documents many times in the past.

Three of the apparent NSA reports deal with climate change, and the other two with agricultural trade issues, including U.S. cherry exports to Japan.

WikiLeaks has released similar documents in recent weeks that it said show NSA spying on Germany, France and Brazil.

U.S. spying on its allies became an issue in 2013, when WikiLeaks released documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that showed the NSA had been eavesdropping on the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.