In Chinese intelligence operations, honey traps are a classic yet extremely effective method. Politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats, young lawmakers, and future elite figures invited to China may be exposed to risks through interpreters, hospitality, hotels, hidden cameras, wiretapping, and other means designed to obtain compromising material. This essay warns of the reality of the Chinese Communist Party’s operations against Japan, referring to the case of former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, approaches to politicians, and the dangers faced by young elites participating in the so-called “Great Wall Plan.”

May 9, 2020

For ordinary business travelers and tourists, even if they are secretly filmed or wiretapped, it may not become a serious issue.
However, for the elite class taken to China under the “Great Wall Plan,” it may develop into a major problem in the future.

I am republishing a chapter first released on December 14, 2019, under the title:
“Regarding honey-trap operations, even professional diplomats who have received prior education on intelligence work are easily entrapped.”
I am also republishing a chapter first released on May 30, 2018, under the title:
“In fact, when they arrived in Beijing, the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party prepared an exceptionally beautiful woman as an interpreter.”

Opening passage omitted.

An American newspaper reported that, in Taiwan, Chinese agents have been conducting intelligence activities such as setting honey traps in which they form intimate relationships with active-duty military personnel in order to collect information.
The number of female agents reportedly exceeds 5,000.
When I think of honey traps, what comes to mind is the case of former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who, over a period of ten years, continued to be subjected to operations by a Chinese female spy, an agent, and provided 2.6 billion yen in ODA to China.
Moreover, the Chinese side has testified that, during that period, he had a physical relationship with the Chinese female agent.
It was a truly deplorable incident that the person who ultimately fell into the operation of a Chinese female agent and damaged Japan’s national interest was none other than a prime minister.

Nagatacho Confidential, No. 114, Wednesday, May 6, 2010.

The Chinese female spy in question was an agent who approached the politician Ryutaro Hashimoto, one of the “new three great figures” among Japan’s welfare-policy politicians, with a clear purpose.
That Hashimoto believed she was merely an “interpreter” is astonishing.
Last year, the Sankei Shimbun reported:
“According to sources connected with Japan-China relations, there are active Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers whom the person in charge of China’s policy toward Japan relies upon and calls the ‘Seven Samurai.’”
The seven are said to be Yohei Kono, Yasuo Fukuda, Takeshi Noda, Toshihiro Nikai, Koichi Kato, Taku Yamasaki, and Masahiko Komura, and the order is said to reflect the degree of “pro-China” stance and expectation placed upon them.
Furthermore, we must not forget that Sadakazu Tanigaki, who also ran in the party presidential election over the post-Koizumi succession and was reported on in weekly magazines, was added.
The Aegis vessel information leak incident is also said to possibly have involved a honey trap in which a man was seduced in order to obtain information.
Japan’s crisis-management system is somehow worrying.
Pathetic.
Deplorable.
Will Defense Minister Kyuma really be all right?

The blog “Mizuma Clause” also points out honey traps.
Regarding honey traps, it states:
〈A person is made to drink alcohol, or is drugged, and when he comes to, a woman is sleeping next to him in bed.
Photographs are taken of that.
There are in fact many politicians who have fallen into such traps.〉
And in the case of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party:
〈Masaharu Gotoda, as a senior figure from the National Police Agency, is said to have given Kamei the following advice:
“You are going to China this time, aren’t you?
When you go to China, be absolutely careful about women.”
In fact, when he arrived in Beijing, the International Department prepared an exceptionally beautiful woman as an interpreter.
Moreover, when interpreting, she would cling closely to his side and translate as if whispering into his ear.
Even after work ended and he returned to his hotel, this interpreter would not leave.
Omitted.
He apparently forced the interpreter to leave.
Omitted.
Even now, when Kamei has meals with others, he says, though jokingly:
“That was a pity at the time.”
Omitted.
Among the politicians reported to have fallen into traps like the one Kamei experienced are former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and the current LDP president, Sadakazu Tanigaki.〉
Page 166.
Thus, the testimony of those targeted by honey traps is vivid.
In other words, China seems to have targeted LDP politicians one after another with honey traps.
The fact that there are as many as 5,000 honey-trap agents is astonishing.

Now, it seems that among Ozawa’s delegation to China last year as well, there were first-term lawmakers who became involved in honey traps.
The following is reprinted from “Global Idle Talk: Current Affairs in Passing, IZA Appearance.”

I hear that anyone who has been to China even once has experienced this.
When one returns to the hotel room from outside, the telephone immediately rings, and a woman calls with an invitation under the pretext of massage and so on.
In the case of ordinary travelers, there may be genuine massages, but most are merely prostitutes.
However, what is important here is that, in China, cameras are almost certainly installed in hotel rooms, and telephones are also wiretapped.
For ordinary business travelers and tourists, even if they are secretly filmed or wiretapped, it may not become a serious issue.
However, for the elite class taken to China under the “Great Wall Plan,” it may develop into a major problem in the future.
In other words, a person who became their partner on such an occasion may suddenly be assigned to Japan one day, or Chinese-related parties may use evidence as leverage to force cooperation.
This is what is called a honey trap in intelligence operations.

China’s honey-trap operations of this kind are so sophisticated that even professional diplomats who have received prior education in intelligence work are easily entrapped.
Therefore, it is rather natural that young politicians, who originally have no immunity to such things, would fall into them.
In fact, it is rumored that there are Chinese agents around Secretary-General Ozawa himself, and it is also well known that the late Prime Minister Hashimoto’s secretary and lover was an agent of the Chinese Communist Party.
There have also been confirmed cases, though not involving top figures, in which a communications officer at the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai became the target of this operation and was forced to leak diplomatic codes, and in which a member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force was forced to leak internal information.
In both cases, the individuals concerned committed suicide.
In other words, this seemingly harmless Japan-China exchange program, the “Great Wall Plan,” is very likely to be a trap designed to drop large numbers of Japan’s future leaders into Chinese-made honeypots.
And through this, China can secure, in large numbers and on a continuing basis, intelligence-operation routes so valuable that they cannot be converted into monetary terms.
I do not think that Democratic Party Secretary-General Ozawa is intentionally cooperating with that plan.
However, I would very much like to ask what thoughts he has about the fact that, as a result, he exposed the members of the delegation to China to such danger, and indirectly, perhaps, participated in conduct that could be called treasonous.