Japan Press Weekly

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2017 September 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

Defense Ministry under PM Office pressure decided to purchase Global Hawks

The Ministry of Defense on September 12 submitted to Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira the ministry’s internal documents considering stopping the planned purchase of unmanned reconnaissance drones, Global Hawks, due to a sharp rise in their purchase price.

Koike revealed the possession of these documents at a press conference held on August 21.

The documents show that because the price went up by 23% from the initial price, the ministry will propose cancelling the acquisition of GH and thus it will coordinate with relevant ministries, agencies, the National Security Secretariat (NSS), and the Prime Minister’s Office. The documents, however, indicate that the Defense Ministry was told by the NSS, which is directly linked with the PM Office, to introduce the surveillance drones as planned.

The following is a comment of JCP Koike Akira on the internal documents.

It has come to light that the Defense Ministry once decided against the purchase of the spy drones, but it changed its decision as a result of PM Office pressure to acquire the GH. While aware of the significant price increase from the beginning, the government plans to buy the aircraft. The budget request of 20 billion yen for fiscal 2018 for the GH purchase is unacceptable. It is necessary to thoroughly determine the details of whatever pressure the Defense Ministry received.

Past related articles:
> Stop purchasing costly SDF equipment [September 5, 2017]
> Defense Ministry takes advantage of ‘threat’ from N. Korea to request biggest-ever budget [September 2, 2017]