The agency subsequently compiled a daily tip sheet on the Japanese negotiating position in the recent US-Japan spat over cars. CIA's Tokyo station and the NSA reportedly contributed information. That project, with its leaked CIA boasts of secret successes, has recently chilled relations with Japan. It has also boosted Japan's plans to strengthen its own intelligence gathering. In the NOC program, corporations allow the CIA to plant operatives among their personnel abroad to spy on competitors.
Japan is a prime target.
According to John Quinn, a former NOC officer in Japan, the Japanese caught a team of 13 NOC officers in 1989. The 15-year program was broken up by Japan's Public Security Investigative Agency, which simply hired thugs to bust up the homes and offices of NOCs, causing the CIA to recall them in a panic. The CIA reportedly has some 60 officers now in Japan investigating companies like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kyocera, Dai Nippon printing, and the National Space Development Agency. And 30 of the 80 CIA agents in France reportedly operate as NOCs. One of the CIA operatives expelled in last February's spy scandal worked under non-official cover.