The Defense Ministry on Friday announced that five senior members of the Maritime and Ground Self-Defense Forces had been punished over the passing on of secret information to unvetted personnel within their units.
The incidents involved the then-captain of the MSDF destroyer Inazuma, who in June 2022 designated an unqualified officer to handle what Japan calls ¡°specially designated secrets,¡± and the commander of a GSDF Northern Army unit, who in July last year revealed secret information to service members not in positions to know it, the ministry said.
¡°Although all of these incidents were internal leaks within the respective units, and no leaks to outsiders have been confirmed, we take these incidents extremely seriously,¡± Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told a news conference Friday.
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