NSA spied on the government and private companies in Japan. AFP.

Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe. Yahoo/AFP.

According to new leaks released by Wikileadks, the NSA has spied on the Japanese government and several Japanese companies. AFP. Japan is widely considered to be the United States most reliable ally in the Pacific, though this is not the first time that the NSA has been caught spying on allies. Both Germany and France were spied on as well, and the revelations in both case damaged relations between the countries and the United States. Information was gathered on Japan's trade, diplomatic and nuclear policy. Prime Minster Shinzo Abe was not targeted, but his trade minster, Yoichi Miyazawa was. In addition to government targets, the central bank was targeted as well as private corporations based in Japan. The timing is considered inconvenient because Japan and the United States are in the middle of negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a very ambitious trade deal.

My Comment:

Whenever I hear about the NSA spying on some friendly government I get upset. Not for the obvious reasons either. Yes this hurts our relations with Japan and no we shouldn't be spying on our allies. Sure, none of that is good. But what really makes me mad? That people care more about spying on heads of government then they do about the NSA spying on normal people.

 I understand that there is going to be some espionage between countries, even if those countries are close allies. That's just a fact of life. Normal people are supposed to be off limits. Though the NSA has ended their collection of phone records, they are still collecting internet data. And the internet data could be far more damaging to an individual then any phone records could ever be. This is what we should be angry about. After all, being a major player in a government guarantees you will be spied on. Just being a normal person should not have the same guarantee. 

Rant aside, this was a pretty dumb move by the NSA. This will probably hurt relations with Japan. Even worse, it could change the public's perception in Japan. Right now Japan is heading away from their pacifist constitution. That means our traditional ally in the region, may actually be willing to fight with us if we get into a shooting war with North Korea or China. Of course, if the Japanese people know that their ally is spying on their government they could force the government to change course, which could embolden our enemies. 

One wonders who leaked the information to Wikileaks. From what I understand, the treasure trove of information leaked by Edward Snowden has been used up. The very well could be something left over, but you would have thought that they would have released it by now. I checked the Wikileaks site and they did not say where these intercepts came from. 

The obvious answer to the question is that there is a second intelligence leaker out there somewhere. Whoever he or she is, they are taking a tremendous risk and is doing a fairly brave thing. Edward Snowden is only a free man today because he fled to Russia. If he had remained in the states he would be in prison right now... or worse. Still, I question the leaker if he gave the files directly to Wikileaks. They have in the past not taken steps to protect the identity of spies which could have lead to deaths or imprisonment. And more then once have the edited video or removed context from documents to prove some political point. Either way, this is good information for the public to have, and in this case I support Wikileaks. I just wish the leaker had gone with Glenn Greenwald instead. 

Finally, the fact that there is so much espionage, not just between countries, but between governments and corporations, is something that always gets overlooked. Companies are supposed to be off limits for this kind of spying since they are private entities, but that doesn't seem to happen in the real world. Indeed, China and the United States are in an economic war where both sides spy on each others companies to try and gain an advantage over the other side. Now it is clear that it is also happening, perhaps in one direction, between the United States and Japan. The problem with this is that it opens up the possibility that Japan will start doing the same thing to U.S. companies in retaliation... if they aren't doing so already.

And I have to say that I am disappointed that the NSA scandal has officially been on the back burner for quite some time. The revelation that the government was listening into all of our phone calls and monitoring our internet usage did spark outrage, but that outrage seems to have tapered off. We are also in an election season and it is shocking to me that there hasn't been much talk about the NSA scandal from the candidates. Yes there was some back when congress passed the legislation that weakened the NSA's collection capabilities, but since then there hasn't been so much as a peep. I'm hoping as the election gets closer the issue will come back to the forefront again...