The Japan Coast Guard Officer Who Leaked Videos is a Hero or a Criminal?

TV programs here in Japan are now focused on whether criminality of a Japan Coast Guard officer working as a navigator of the patrol boat who stepped forward and admitted that he had leaked out 44 minutes videos of Senkaku Islands Incident via YouTube can be established.

One possible charge against Japan's national hero is a breach of confidentiality agreement under the National Employees Law.

However, the heated discussions are going on over the two factors that constitute a breach of confidentiality agreement every national employee in Japan has to abide by under Article 100, National Employees Law. They are as follows.

1. Whether information and data were already made public before their leakage or not.
2. Whether their confidentiality must be protected.

As for the first factor, 6 minutes version of the Senkaku Islands Incident was shown to the limited number of politicians before leakage of 44 minutes version. And, Japan Coast Guard has long practiced disclosures of videos in which their activities are recorded, to improve their interactions with the general public.

It is reported that Japan Coast Guard was ready to make the whole videos public a day after the incident occurred. For some reasons, they did not show them to the public.

The second factor of whether those videos must be kept confidential or not is quite debatable in consideration of the reasons listed below.

1. Those videos were already shown to the Japanese politicians.
2. Japan has been strongly condemned by China over the arrest of the fishing boat captain. To protect Japan's interest, the Government of Japan should have made those videos public as practiced during the Administrations controlled by Liberal Democratic Party.
3. China has taken a number of retaliatory actions against Japan as evidenced in the arrest of four Japanese nationals said to be spying in the restricted area where the Government of Japan has been in a process of treating chemical weapons left unused by the Old Imperial Japanese Army based upon the agreement between Japan and China.
China also has embargoed export of rare earths to Japan.
4. The general public has a right to know what really happened around Senkaku Islands when Japan has been strongly criticized by China and her people.