AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
TOKYO: US Marines have taught Japanese troops how to suppress potential riots near US bases, in training that came to light Monday after Japanese defense files were accidentally leaked over the Internet.
The training took place last year on the southern island chain of Okinawa, which hosts most US military facilities in Japan and has seen frequent friction between troops and residents.
The training was reported by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, which viewed internal files that went online in the latest leak made through the defective Japanese file-swapping software Winny.
The Defense Agency confirmed that the training took place from March 21 to 25, 2005 but denied it was secretive.
“The information was leaked through file-sharing software but nothing clandestine was included in the files,” a Defense Agency spokeswoman said.
The training taught Japanese troops how to use their hands and nightsticks to effectively target demonstrators during a hypothetical riot around a US base, the Mainichi reported.
It also included instructions on how Japanese defense authorities should handle media coverage, it said.
Okinawa has seen a series of large but non-violent protests against US troops, particularly after three Marines gang-raped a 12-year-old girl in 1995.
The two countries signed a deal last week after months of wrangling to move 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam by 2014.
Okinawa now hosts over half of the 40,000 US troops in Japan and three-quarters of the US military facilities.
The troops are stationed under an alliance forged after Japan lost World War II and was forced to renounce the means of war.
A law revised after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States allows Japanese troops — known as the Self-Defense Forces — to use force to protect US military bases.
The Winny software lets users swap music and movie files over the Internet but has led to a series of leaks of confidential files from Japanese government offices, raising concerns about the country's information management.
The software was designed by graduate student Isamu Kaneko, who is now on trial for abetting copyright violations but remains a hero for Internet buffs.
