US surveillance of Japan blow to Abe government

The United States has been intercepting phone calls between Japanese officials on sensitive issues including trade, climate change and bilateral relations, the whistle-blowing Wikileaks website revealed on Friday. The documents, marked "top secret", reportedly show that the National Security Agency shared the information it had gathered with Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand: the so-called Five Eyes intelligence partners. Comments:

In these documents we see the Japanese government worrying in private about how much or how little to tell the United States in order to prevent undermining the diplomatic relationship. The lesson for Japan is this: Do not expect a global surveillance superpower to act with honor or respect.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, July 31