Tokyo police raided on Monday the Kawasaki headquarters of Mitutoyo Corp. on suspicion the manufacturer of precision equipment illegally exported products that could be used to make nuclear weapons to China and Thailand from 2001 to 2002.
Exports of the products, three-dimensional gauges, are restricted under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, but the company is suspected of selling them, together with operating software, to the two countries without permission from the trade minister, as required by law, investigative sources said.
The allegations follow the discovery by the International Atomic Energy Agency of precision measuring devices at a nuclear-related facility in Libya, including one that Mitutoyo had exported to Malaysia, similar to the two cited in Monday's raid.
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