November 9, 2017
The Board of Audit on November 8 delivered to Prime Minister Abe Shinzo a report pointing out that the government had overpaid an amount of 188.8 million yen for on-sea security in Okinawa's Henoko.
The Defense Ministry local bureau in Okinawa had a contract with Tokyo-based RisingSun Security Service Inc. for "security" work during the period between July 2015 and October 2016 along the coastline of U.S. Camp Schwab in Okinawa during the reclamation work first needed to build a new U.S. military base.
The company contracted out "guard" operations to its 100% subsidiary Marine Security Co. located in Okinawa. However, what Marine Security had actually been engaged in was the "monitoring" of and "crackdowns" on civilian boats and kayaks protesting the landfill work.
According to the Board of Audit, the defense bureau paid from 39,000 yen to 59,000 yen a day per guard. These amounts corresponded to 1.7 times or more than double the amount for ordinary labor charges.
The actual operations did not require any special skills. The guards just called attention to ships approaching the restricted zone to keep out. Moreover, the amount of daily pay they received was between 9,000 yen and 10,000 yen.
The captain of a protest boat said, "Marine Security is a company involved in an infringement of human rights. It takes demonstrators' face photos and makes a name list of civil protesters. I'm very angry with the defense bureau splurging our tax money on such a company at this company's exorbitant asking price for the sake of the new U.S. base."
Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Akamine Seiken also said, "In addition to its excessive security actions against local protesters, Marine Security commits a lot of illegal acts such as imposing long working hours in violation of the Labor Standards Acts, overtime work without pay, power harassment, and illegal dumping of fuel into the sea. The Ministry of Defense should immediately stop its interference to stifle legitimate civil protests."
The Defense Ministry local bureau in Okinawa had a contract with Tokyo-based RisingSun Security Service Inc. for "security" work during the period between July 2015 and October 2016 along the coastline of U.S. Camp Schwab in Okinawa during the reclamation work first needed to build a new U.S. military base.
The company contracted out "guard" operations to its 100% subsidiary Marine Security Co. located in Okinawa. However, what Marine Security had actually been engaged in was the "monitoring" of and "crackdowns" on civilian boats and kayaks protesting the landfill work.
According to the Board of Audit, the defense bureau paid from 39,000 yen to 59,000 yen a day per guard. These amounts corresponded to 1.7 times or more than double the amount for ordinary labor charges.
The actual operations did not require any special skills. The guards just called attention to ships approaching the restricted zone to keep out. Moreover, the amount of daily pay they received was between 9,000 yen and 10,000 yen.
The captain of a protest boat said, "Marine Security is a company involved in an infringement of human rights. It takes demonstrators' face photos and makes a name list of civil protesters. I'm very angry with the defense bureau splurging our tax money on such a company at this company's exorbitant asking price for the sake of the new U.S. base."
Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Akamine Seiken also said, "In addition to its excessive security actions against local protesters, Marine Security commits a lot of illegal acts such as imposing long working hours in violation of the Labor Standards Acts, overtime work without pay, power harassment, and illegal dumping of fuel into the sea. The Ministry of Defense should immediately stop its interference to stifle legitimate civil protests."
