Police raided a major Japanese manufacturer on Monday for allegedly exporting advanced machines that can be used to build nuclear weapons after one of the firm’s devices was found in Libya.
Officers searched the headquarters and plants of precision equipment maker Mitutoyo after it exported the machines to China and Thailand, police said.
Mitutoyo is believed to have exported two 3D gauges, precise machines regulated by Japan’s trade control ordinance, to the other Asian nations in 2001 without permission from the trade ministry.
They were the same model that the International Atomic Energy Agency found in Libya when the UN nuclear watchdog inspected its nuclear facilities in 2003 and 2004, Jiji Press reported.
Libya is believed to have obtained the machine through the ”nuclear black market” after the company exported it to Malaysia in about 2001, the report said.
Mitutoyo also allegedly exported two CD-ROMS to China and Thailand on how to operate the machines.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment as it had closed for the day.
Japanese police dispatched officers to China and Thailand and found that the devices were highly precise machines that could be used in nuclear arms development, Jiji Press said.
However, the machines that led to the raids were not sold to a third country or turned to military use, the news agency said.
Last month, police raided major motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor on suspicion the Japanese company tried to export illegally to China agricultural use helicopters that can be converted for military purposes.
Yamaha Motor denied any wrongdoing. – AFP
