Okada hints state may appeal ruling on Okinawa reversion pact

Apr 9 10:59 AM US/Eastern

TOKYO, April 9 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada indicated Friday that the government may consider appealing a court ruling ordering the state to disclose documents suggesting the existence of a secret financial pact reached by Japan and United States over the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan from U.S. control.

"We have conducted a thorough investigation and it is clear that there are no (such) documents in the ministry," Okada said, referring to a recent investigation initiated by the Foreign Ministry on four Japan- U.S. secret pacts, including the one in question.

"There is no other answer than this ... I cannot accept this ruling as it is," he said during a regular press conference.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters separately that his government's basic stance is to be "open" to the public on the secret pact issue but added he would like to decide the government's direction after "consulting well" with Okada.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry said in a statement that it thought the ruling was "harsh" and it would like to decide how to respond by discussing the matter with other ministries concerned.

The documents in question, compiled between 1969 and 1971, include one indicating Japan secretly shouldered $4 million in costs that the United States was supposed to pay to restore farmland in Okinawa that had been used by U.S. forces.

But the document, which is said to bear the initials of the Japanese and U.S. officials involved, was not found during an in-house investigation by the Foreign Ministry.

Still, a panel of experts under the ministry acknowledged in March that a secret pact "in a broad sense" covering the cost burdens for the reversion of Okinawa existed.

The existence of a total of four secret pacts had already been exposed through declassified U.S. documents and testimonies of people involved. But the Japanese government long denied the existence of any such pacts, before the historic change of government last year led to an investigation of the matter.