April 6, 2018

Six opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, on April 5 jointly submitted to the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties a written request urging that a series of illegal acts by government ministries, such as the cover-up of documents regarding the Self-Defense Forces dispatch to Iraq, be discussed in the Diet as a matter of priority.

The request document was agreed upon in a meeting of the Diet Affairs committee chiefs of the JCP, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Party of Hope, the Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the Group of Independents. They held the meeting in response to the Defense Ministry’s admission of the concealment of the SDF’s Iraq mission-related data.

The six-opposition party alliance in its document referred to the fact that the Ground SDF for more than a year hid data regarding the daily logs that GSDF units had kept during their mission in Iraq. The six opposition parties stated that SDF uniformed officers disregarded the fundamental principle of civilian control, which is a serious problem. Furthermore, the six parties cited the Finance Ministry’s alteration of “Moritomo”-related records and the Labor Ministry’s falsification of working hour survey data. The six-party alliance criticized the Prime Minister Abe-led administration for disrespecting the Diet.

The six parties pointed out that the unveiling of truth behind the government ministries’ acts of treachery is one of the important mandates of the legislative branch and should be at the top of Diet agenda. The opposition alliance requested the ruling bloc to agree to hold a meeting of all political parties’ Diet Affairs committee chairs in order to recognize the importance of the matter and to discuss ways to fulfill the legislative branch’s responsibility.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democratic Party Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Moriyama Hiroshi on the day refused to accept the opposition force’s request.

Past related articles:
> Unveil motives and history of alteration of 'Moritomo'-related official data: JCP Koike [March 29, 2018]
> Finance Ministry admits to falsification of official documents regarding state land sale to Moritomo [March 13, 2018]
> Shii: Gov’t should give up submitting pro-business ‘work-style reform’ bill to Diet [February 23, 2018]