SDF officials embezzle tax money

More cases of embezzlement in the Self-Defense Forces have been uncovered in parliament by the Japanese Communist Party.

At a Lower House committee meeting on May 19, JCP Representative Ozawa Kazuaki revealed that the SDF Fukuoka Hospital in February was reimbursed for travel expenses for a Tokyo doctor invited to assist in surgery at the hospital but that the doctor neither went to the Fukuoka hospital nor received traveling expenses.

The JCP lawmaker also revealed that a commander in charge of accounting of the Ground SDF stationed in Naha in Okinawa falsified the books in 1987 and 1988 to have money for merrymaking. The receipts show that money reimbursed for "study and training" was actually used for fishing, diving, and playing golf.

Ozawa said, "The crux of the matter is that the accounting section led the systematic effort to set aside money for senior SDF officers' private use or for entertaining bureaucrats." (end)