Corporate engineers secretly sent abroad to help Japan-U.S. operations

The Defense Agency has acknowledged that 16 corporate engineers from July to October were engaged in repair of Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels in the Indian Ocean which were refuelling U.S. military ships in the anti-terrorist war on Afghanistan.

The revelation was made in the House of Representatives committee on security affairs meeting on November 8 during a reply to Akamine Seiken from the Japanese Communist Party.

Akamine pointed out that the law on special measures against terrorism, enacted in October 2001 to enable Japan's participation in the U.S. retaliatory war, has no stipulations on cooperation by civilians with the SDF.

He criticized this year's use of corporate engineers as covertly making civilians cooperate with the SDF in combat situations, without precedent in the postwar years. He demanded that the Defense Agency end asking corporations to supply engineers.

Akamine raised the question that there is no guarantee for the safety of the engineers.

Defense Agency counselor Oi Atsushi evasively answered that not the agency but the employer corporations should be accountable to compensate for accidents. (end)