Ideologies and Sexual Orientation... Japan’s Self-Defense Force Secretly Collected Personal Data on Civilians

Whistleblower Reveals Activities of GSDF’s Dedicated “Local Information Corps”

Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) has come under scrutiny following allegations that it created a dedicated unit to secretly collect personal information—including political beliefs and sexual orientation—of civilians such as NGO officials.

On September 12, the Asahi Shimbun reported this development, citing testimony from a former member of the GSDF unit called the “Local Information Corps,” which was allegedly established for this purpose.

A Japanese government official also acknowledged to the Asahi Shimbun that such intelligence gathering activities took place. However, the official clarified that the collected information was almost never used in Self-Defense Force missions abroad or in similar deployments.

The whistleblower, formerly affiliated with the GSDF’s Local Information Corps, revealed that the unit systematically investigated civilians with significant overseas knowledge—such as university professors and NGO officials—particularly those related to countries where Self-Defense Force deployments occurred.

According to investigation reports obtained by the Asahi Shimbun, around 40 types of information were recorded about each subject, including photographs, body type, eye and skin color, personality, attitude, ideology, beliefs, financial status, and sexual preferences.

Within the Local Information Corps, contact with investigation subjects was generally referred to as “business.” Members were reportedly assigned a monthly quota requiring contact twice a month with their assigned individuals.

The Asahi Shimbun pointed out that since these investigation reports were not treated as official documents, there are potential violations of the Personal Information Protection Act and the Public Records and Archives Management Act, which requires proper administration of government files. This issue was also reported by a regional newspaper in Kyushu in late July.

Shinjiro Koizumi, the Minister of Defense, stated at a press conference addressing the reports, “As of now, no inappropriate activities have been confirmed.”

Yonhap News

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.