DA gave out personal information at 17 seminars

A Japanese Communist Party Diet member found out that the Maritime Self-Defense Force had distributed a booklet containing personal information about individuals who requested records from the Defense Agency at MADF seminars held in 17 locations throughout the country.

House of Councilors member Koizumi Chikashi learned this fact from a defense officials' briefing on July 11.

Although the DA did not give the exact number of people who attended the seminar on the Free Access to Information Law, the office said that an enormous number must have participated.

The three-page booklet classified 154 info-seekers' jobs into 5 categories, including mass media, academics, and politics and made a graph based on their percentages. More specific job titles, such as TV reporter, ombudsman, Diet member's secretary, lawyer, and college professor, were added in each category.

It came to light last month that the DA officials had created a list of info-seekers' personal information and made it available to anyone in the agency by posting it on the LAN.

The agency's report of June 11 on the listing stated that the officials made the list at their own initiative and mentioned nothing about the seminars in question.

However, the booklet and the seminar are clear evidence showing that the DA systematically collected and used personal information of info-seekers, Akahata on July 17 pointed out. (end)