A ruling Tuesday in Tokyo District Court that dismissed a damages suit filed by a former Mainichi Shimbun reporter defies common sense because of the gap between the ruling and the known facts, although the ruling has its own logic.

While covering Japan-U.S. negotiations on Okinawa¡¯s reversion to Japanese rule, the reporter, Mr. Takichi Nishiyama, obtained photocopies of diplomatic documents pointing to a secret agreement by Japan to shoulder $4 million (worth about 1.2 billion yen at the time) in costs to convert areas used by the U.S. military back into farmland. In a June 1971 newspaper report, Mr. Nishiyama hinted at the existence of a bilateral secret pact but did not refer to the documents.

In March 1972, Japan Socialist Party lawmakers produced photocopies of the documents in the Diet. Mr. Nishiyama, who had passed photocopies to one of the lawmakers, was eventually found guilty of violating the National Public Service Law -- for persuading a female Foreign Ministry worker, also convicted, to give him copies of classified documents.

In 2000 and 2002, however, U.S. official documents proving the existence of the secret pact were discovered in the U.S. National Archives. In April 2005, Mr. Nishiyama filed a damages suit. He said the wrongful indictment and court ruling as well as the continued denial by government officials of the existence of the pact had damaged his reputation.

In February 2006, Mr. Bunroku Yoshino, who was in charge of the Okinawa reversion negotiations as director general of the Foreign Ministry¡¯s American Bureau, publicly admitted that Japan had secretly shouldered the $4 million.

Yet, in Tuesday¡¯s ruling, the court said Mr. Nishiyama¡¯s case could not proceed because the 20-year filing period had passed. Using this technicality, the court avoided delving into the case itself. Because almost 36 years have passed since the signing of the reversion agreement, there should be no obstacle to the government¡¯s owning up to the existence of the secret pact. Its continued refusal to do so only deepens distrust of the government.