The Japanese government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have agreed to sign an information security pact aimed at strengthening military cooperation between them, government sources said Saturday (March 6).

By concluding the pact, the government hopes to make it easier to obtain security information on Afghanistan, where NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops are deployed, according to the sources.

Japan has sent four Foreign Ministry officials to the ISAF provincial reconstruction team in Chaghcharan in central western Afghanistan. The civilian officials are working under the protection of Lithuanian soldiers.

The administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is focusing on civilian aid to Afghanistan and decided last year to provide up to US$5 billion in such aid to the country over five years. Following the decision, increasing numbers of aid workers, including experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, are expected to work in Afghanistan, prompting the need to gather security information that will help determine the areas where such people can work safely.

The government also hopes to obtain detailed analysis on the scale of Taliban militant activity and their penetration into Afghan civilian society, as well as make use of such information to ensure the safety of Japanese aid workers in the country, the sources said.

The planned pact will be the second such agreement for Japan following the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which it signed with the United States in August 2007. GSOMIA stipulates the number of government officials from each country who are allowed to deal with secret military information in such forms as documents, images and electronic files. It also limits the transfer of such information to third countries.

The government and NATO will sign the information security pact within the next few months, the sources said.

The planned pact will stipulate that if one side is offered confidential military information on such issues as military operations or security, the recipient must handle the information in as strict a manner as dictated by the standards of the provider.

If such information is leaked, those involved will be punished under their own country's domestic laws.

The government has been cooperating with NATO on assisting Afghanistan and other matters, but it has been discussing the pact at the request of NATO, which said such an agreement would be necessary to share top secret information, the sources said.

In Japan, the National Civil Service Law and the Self-Defence Forces Law stipulate punitive measures for divulging information, and therefore Japan will not need to make any legal amendments to conclude the agreement with NATO. In addition, as the planned pact is an agreement between administrative authorities, parliamentary approval will not be required.

Japan and NATO plan to officially sign the pact after taking such steps as conducting inspecting each other's security systems.