Japan rejected NSA requests to tap fibre in 2011: Reports

Wanting to gather more information on China, the US National Security Agency (NSA) approached the Japanese government in 2011 to allow it to tap the international fibre-optic cables that traverse the country and carry much of the traffic across East Asia.

Citing a lack of legal framework and personnel, the Japanese government rejected the NSA requests to provide communication data, including internet activity and phone calls, sources told The Japan Times over the weekend.

The newspaper said that due to a lack of legislation preventing the intercepting of communications in the country, even the communications of suspected terrorists, the government could not acquiesce to the NSA request. Sources told the newspaper that due to the smaller number of intelligence employees in Japan, the private sector would had to have been involved in the creation of such data collection.