Japan’s High-Technology Sales to Soviets a Betrayal: Nakasone

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone called Toshiba Machine Co.’s illegal sales of high technology to the Soviets a betrayal of the Japanese people today shortly before his envoy, Japan’s trade minister, departed to face American anger over the incident.

The prime minister, speaking during a nationally televised question-and-answer session with opposition members in the Diet, or Parliament, said the sales were “made illegally and systematically through false applications.”

“It is a grave act of betrayal not only to the United States and other countries, but also to the Japanese people,” Nakasone said of the sales of the propeller-milling machines, which help make Soviet submarines quieter and harder to detect.

Toshiba Machine, owned 50.1% by the giant electronics firm Toshiba Corp., is accused of selling $17 million in propeller-milling machinery to the Soviets from 1982 to 1984 in violation of Japanese and international export-control laws.

Nakasone said the government is studying measures, including extending the statute of limitations on Japan’s export control laws, to prevent further incidents and is investigating whether other Japanese firms have made similar sales.