Former Naval Officer Guilty of Espionage

A former Japanese naval officer pleaded guilty to charges that he leaked defense secrets--including information about U.S. naval units in Japan--to a Russian military attache. Shigehiro Hagisaki, 38, formerly a lieutenant commander with the Maritime Self-Defense Force, made the plea at the Tokyo District Court, a court spokesman said. Hagisaki was arrested Sept. 8 at a Tokyo restaurant after he handed Capt. Viktor Bogatenkov copies of a classified training manual used by senior Maritime Self-Defense Force officers and papers regarding plans for military communications systems, police said. Bogatenkov, 44, was an official at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. He left Japan a day after Hagisaki’s arrest.