Japan:Mitutoyo falsifies Iranian recipient's name to get export permission(nuke-related equipment)

Kyodo news ^ | 08/26/06

[TigerLikesRooster]

Mitutoyo falsifies Iranian recipient's name to get export permission

(Kyodo) _ Precision measuring device maker Mitutoyo Corp. falsified the name of the Iranian corporate recipient of a high-tech measuring machine in 1997 in filing an application document for an export permit from the Japanese government, investigative sources said Saturday.

Mitutoyo entered a fictitious corporate name in the application document's section for the machine's importer instead of Pars Switch Co., the real recipient, in seeking the permit from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the sources said.

The manufacturer exported the equipment that year via Seian, a trading house based in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, to Pars Switch, which was one of the companies put by MITI on its list of foreign corporations suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction. Pars Switch is suspected of involvement in Iran's nuclear development program, they said.

The sources at the Metropolitan Police Department said they believe Mitutoyo fabricated the corporate name of the machine's recipient to prevent MITI from rejecting the application for its export permit.

Mitutoyo entered the real address of Pars Switch on the application document, although it filled out the same dossier's section for the importer's name with the bogus name, according to the sources with knowledge of investigations by the Tokyo police's Public Safety Division.

It appears to have fabricated the name of the recipient of its equipment on the dossier on instructions from Seian and Pars Switch, which appear to have held consultations beforehand concerning the falsification scheme, they said. ADVERTISEMENT

On Friday, the police raided Seian's Tokyo office on suspicion of illegally selling the precision measuring instruments in 1997 to Pars Switch.

The same day, the police also arrested Mitutoyo's current and former presidents as well as three other executives on suspicion of exporting two high-tech measuring devices convertible for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons to Malaysia in 2001 without government permission.

One of the two in-line coordinate measuring machines was found in a nuclear facility in Libya by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors during their 2003-2004 checks.

The machines, known as three-dimensional machines, can be used to manufacture centrifuge machines to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Their export is subject to restrictions under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law and the Export Trade Control Ordinance.

Japanese investigators found that Mitutoyo has used two different names for the same three-dimensional measuring machine that eventually ended up in Libya's hands. The machine allegedly traveled via the nuclear black market run by Pakistani nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

The investigators believe Mitutoyo used the separate calling names for the same machine in addition to fabricating figures on the machine's capabilities to make it appear that it has lower capabilities than it actually has, in order to bypass Japan's export regulations on such dual-use high-tech products, the sources said.

In January 2000, the Tokyo police's Public Safety Division searched the Tokyo-based trading house Seian over alleged links with another trading firm, Sun Beam K.K., whose former directors were arrested on suspicion of exporting components for sighting device for antitank rocket launchers to Iran.

The documents the police seized in the 2000 case as well as the Mitutoyo dossiers it confiscated in connection with its high-tech machine exports supported suspicions that Mitutoyo's three-dimensional measuring machines and several other precision measuring instruments had ended up in the hands of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics between 1984 and 1992.

Seian is believed to have exported Japanese high-tech products procured from companies other than Mitutoyo to Iran on orders from people with links with the Iranian military, the sources said.

In February, the Tokyo police raided Mitutoyo on suspicion of exporting 3-D precision measuring machines to China and Thailand in 2001 and 2002.

The police sources have said the two Mitutoyo-made 3-D machines were ordered by Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia, suspected of being been at the core of Khan's nuclear black market. One of the two devices was shipped via Dubai on an Iranian-registered ship and eventually reached Libya.

Mitutoyo, based in the industrial city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, just southwest of Tokyo, is a leading maker of high-tech precision measuring machines and runs a network of research institutes and factories in more than 20 countries.

[mware]

falsified the name of the Iranian corporate recipient of a high-tech measuring machine in 1997 in filing an application document for an export permit from the Japanese government, investigative sources said Saturday.

Must be Bush's fault.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #20

Yahoo! News kindly suggested to me that it could be Mitutoyo, when I typed in Mishitoyo(which was also wrong.)

Yahoo! really messed up the spelling this time.:)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #19

Don't forget Kongsberg, a Norwegian company, who was in that scheme with Toshiba.

[Vinnie]

Re #23
Never heard of them.
Wasn't there a German Co. that sold the lathes to use in conjunction with the Toshiba products?

[snowsislander]

OK, I'm nit-picking, but shouldn't this company's name be spelled Mitsutoyo?

Looking at their website, I think it is going to be the kunrei romanization mitutoyo rather than the Hepburn mitsutoyo.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #24

From http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1987/11/bonker.html

/snip

Within several months of the NAS study, Congress learned that subsidiaries of Japan's Toshiba Corporation and Kongsberg, a Norwegian firm, had diverted highly sensitive propeller milling equipment and know-how to the Soviet Union, thereby enabling the Soviets to greatly diminish the noise of their submarine fleet.

These two events should convince every observer - from the most trade-oriented businessperson to the most fervent anti-communist of the need to reform our nation's restrictions on the export of high technology.

/snip

[Vinnie]

Thanks.

I've bought my last lutefish. :)

[DTogo]

Interesting that the company spells its own name as ミツトヨ. Another Engrish mistake it would seem.

[KeepUSfree]

cool - little Lennier

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Absolutely right. Toshiba is on my never buy list.

[lesser_satan]

In February, the Tokyo police raided Mitutoyo on suspicion of exporting 3-D precision measuring machines to China and Thailand in 2001 and 2002.

Media-speak for a CMM? I once saw a show on discovery that referred to an end-mill as a "special drill bit".

[Abathar]

Yeah, they do offer a wide selection of CMM's, sounds like that was what it was. I guess the tape measures they had just didn't cut the mustard.

Was the endmill center cutting? :-)

[snowsislander]

Interesting that the company spells its own name as ミツトヨ. Another Engrish mistake it would seem.

DTogo, the kana つ / ツ can be written either in the Hepburn system as "tsu" or in the kunrei/nihonshiki systems as "tu".

Here's a chart from the Wikipedia page on romaji systems (sorry, but the diacritical marks on the first two lines have gone mojibake):

Kana	Revised Hepburn	Kunrei-shiki	Nihon-shiki
うう	ū	û	û
おう, おお	ō	ô	ô
し	shi	si	si
しゃ	sha	sya	sya
しゅ	shu	syu	syu
しょ	sho	syo	syo
じ	ji	zi	zi
じゃ	ja	zya	zya
じゅ	ju	zyu	zyu
じょ	jo	zyo	zyo
ち	chi	ti	ti
つ	tsu	tu	tu
ちゃ	cha	tya	tya
ちゅ	chu	tyu	tyu
ちょ	cho	tyo	tyo
ぢ	ji	zi	di
づ	zu	zu	du
ぢゃ	ja	zya	dya
ぢゅ	ju	zyu	dyu
ぢょ	jo	zyo	dyo
ふ	fu	hu	hu

[dsc]

That has irritated me for decades now, as it seems clear to me that the kunrei/nihonshiki systems are just simply wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. They do not correctly represent the phonemes in question. We need to round up their followers and burn them at the stake.

[dsc]

Not unusual.

Somebody already mentioned the Toshiba betrayal. The way we found out about that was that our Navy sonar techs immediately picked up on the much quieter screws.

I once did an annual report in which the company wanted to brag about having started doing business with North Viet Nam during the Viet Nam war. Apparently, it just didn't occur to them that some Americans might take exception to that.