Japan roiled by leak of video footage of Chinese boat collisions+

TOKYO, Nov. 5 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government was shaken Friday after confidential
video footage of what appear to be the September collisions between Japanese
patrol boats and a Chinese trawler off a disputed island chain was leaked on
the Internet, adding a further chill to already frosty Tokyo-Beijing ties.
Japanese authorities said they have launched investigations to verify whether
the video clips are those taken by the Japan Coast Guard at the time of the
Sept. 7 collisions near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and how they
were first posted on YouTube.
''First, thorough investigations to determine the cause must be carried out,''
Kan told reporters at his office.
Coast Guard officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, believed that the
clips, running for a total of 44 minutes, were highly likely to have been
leaked.
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara told a press conference that China has expressed
its ''interest in and concerns over'' the video footage through diplomatic
channels.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei released a statement Friday saying
that the footage ''cannot change the truth and cannot cover up the illegality
of Japan's actions.''
Regardless of the leak, Maehara said Japan is eager to mend ties with China by
promoting a mutually beneficial relationship.
He said criminal prosecution would be possible if the video was found to have
been exposed by civil servants despite their obligation to keep government
materials confidential.
Kan also said a ''calm response'' is needed by both Tokyo and Beijing.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said it was a ''grave'' matter that
information deemed important in ongoing investigations into the collisions had
been publicly disclosed.
''If it has been leaked, we need to insert a considerably large surgical knife
of reform into various areas,'' Sengoku told a news conference.
Sengoku, the top government spokesman, also expressed hope that the Japan-China
summit talks being arranged on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum meetings in Yokohama would not be affected by the
development.
Ties between Asia's two largest economies have deteriorated to their worst
level in years in the wake of the collisions off the islets, known as the
Diaoyu in China, and Japan's subsequent arrest and detention of the trawler's
captain.
Kan's government has come under fire at home for freeing the captain in the
face of strong pressure from China and not disclosing video footage shot at the
time of the collisions.
The government is also embroiled in a diplomatic row with Russia following
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit earlier this week to one of the four
Russian-held islands claimed by Japan.
Japanese authorities' ability to manage confidential information has also been
tested in recent weeks. Prior to the latest postings, antiterrorism documents
apparently produced by Tokyo police were leaked on the Internet.
''This time with the video leakage...I felt a sense of crisis that information
has not been managed by the country in the way it should have been,'' said Kan,
when asked what he had thought when he was notified of the postings in the
early hours of Friday.
Japanese prosecutors may seek cooperation from Google Inc., the operator of
YouTube, and they are expected to announce possibly next week whether the
footage had been leaked from within.
Six videos totaling about 44 minutes in length were posted under the username
''Sengoku38'' on YouTube. One of them shows a blue boat, believed to be the
Chinese trawler, ramming into a white ship, seemingly the Coast Guard patrol
boat Mizuki, amid the sound of sirens and voices yelling ''Stop'' in Japanese.
''I think it is authentic footage,'' a senior Coast Guard official said.
Internet users in China are generally unable to view videos on YouTube as the
Chinese government blocks its content.
The latest postings took place after about 30 Japanese parliamentarians saw an
edited version of the incident's footage lasting just under 7 minutes on
Monday.
The original video totals several hours and copies are now kept at the Naha
District Public Prosecutors Office and the Ishigaki Coast Guard office,
according to a senior Coast Guard official.
Opposition Diet members criticized the government for incompetence and
reiterated calls for the entirety of the video footage to be made public.
Coast Guard Commandant Hisayasu Suzuki told a House of Representatives
committee session that the Coast Guard will dispatch personnel to the Ishigaki
Coast Guard office in Okinawa Prefecture to look into the possible leaking of
the videos.
On Sept. 7, the Chinese trawler allegedly pulled up its fishing net and began
to sail away after the Yonakuni, another Coast Guard patrol boat, repeatedly
ordered it to leave Japan's territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in the
East China Sea.
After bumping into the Yonakuni, the boat later deliberately hit the Mizuki
before Coast Guard members forced it to stop outside Japanese territorial
waters, according to the Coast Guard.
The Senkaku Islands are a group of Japanese-administered uninhabited islets
located between Okinawa and Taiwan, and known as the Diaoyu in China and the
Tiaoyutai in Taiwan. Beijing argues that they have been Chinese territory since
ancient times.
==Kyodo
2010-11-05 22:22:47