14 DAY TRIAL // After taking some time off this winter, WikiLeaks is back and better than ever, having released a constant stream of documents in the past months, one juicier than the other.
While having previously published the Sony hack emails, documents on how the Saudi Arabian kingdom is secretly controlling mass media, details on the horrendous TiSA trade deal, and papers on how the US spied on 3 French presidents, now WikiLeaks has come up with new documents that detail the US spying campaign in Japan.
"The reports demonstrate the depth of US surveillance of the Japanese government, indicating that intelligence was gathered and processed from numerous Japanese government ministries and offices," according the official press release.
Apparently, US agencies spied on various Japanese companies, government advisers and numerous government officials, including at one point Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoichi Miyazawa, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, and Japanese Central Bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.
The US also spied on Japanese companies like Mitsubishi and Mitsui
Data acquired by the US includes details on confidential briefings the Japanese PM got at his home, and deliberations on internal Japanese affairs like imports, trade disputes, future technical development plans, climate change, nuclear, energy, and carbon emissions plans.
Other information acquired by US spying agencies includes correspondence with the International Energy Agency (IEA), negotiating positions for the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization, and strategic plans for diplomatic relations with the United States and the European Union.
Some of the data acquired in this operation was not even held for usage inside US agencies and was spread amongst the Five Eyes group, an international intelligence alliance made up of countries like the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
This is not the first time the US has been caught red-handed, previously other WikiLeaks documents having shown how the country spied on some other of its allies, like Germany, France, and Brazil.