Ex-ASDF colonel held for allegedly leaking secret data on U.S. early warning plane in 2013

A former Air Self-Defense Force officer was arrested Friday on suspicion of leaking top secret information seven years ago about a U.S.-made E-2D airborne early warning plane. So Kanno, a 58-year-old former colonel who left the ASDF in 2017, is alleged to have used a personal computer to show data on its capabilities to a trading company employee who was not authorized to access the information. The lead allegedly occurred at Iruma Air Base in Saitama Prefecture around Jan. 9, 2013, the police said. The former colonel is also suspected to have given the employee a USB memory device containing the data, which was designated as a special defense secret under a 1954 law based on the Japan-U.S. Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement. He has denied the allegation, according to investigators.