Japan Press Weekly

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2017 August 9 - 15 [POLITICS]

JCP Kasai points to alleged involvement of Abe and Inada in SDF data cover-up scandal

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Kasai Akira on August 10 at a Diet committee meeting took the rostrum to reveal that the former Defense Minister and the Prime Minister were allegedly involved in the cover-up of documents written by Self-Defense Forces units in UN PKO missions in South Sudan.

The Lower House Security Committee on the day held an off-session meeting to investigate the scandal in which the SDF and the Defense Ministry concealed the Ground SDF’s “daily reports”. Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and former Defense Minister Inada Tomomi did not make an appearance.

Kasai took up the allegation made in consideration of the fact that the SDF denied the existence of daily reports although they were found to have been stored in the SDF. It is alleged that, Kasai said, in mid-February, Inada was informed of the fact at a meeting with top officials of the SDF and the Defense Ministry and then she decided to keep the fact secret. Kasai referred to the report of the defense ministry’s special internal investigation on the cover-up scandal which states that the investigators cannot deny a possibility that at the February’s meeting with Inada, the officials mentioned the existence of the reports in question. The JCP lawmaker asked questions regarding this point.

Defense Minister Onodera Itsunori refused to provide further information about that point claiming the need to protect witnesses’ anonymity. Kasai stressed that it is unacceptable to use the special investigation as a pretext to dodge the responsibility to explain the issue to the general public.

In addition, Kasai pointed out that former Administrative Vice-Minister of Defense Kuroe Tetsuro met with PM Abe on January 18, just one day after former GSDF Chief of Staff Okabe Toshiya learned of the existence of the daily reports in the GSDF. Kasai noted that the special investigation report states that Kuroe in late-January decided not to publish the existence. Stating that these facts suggest that PM Abe gave instructions or his approval to the cover-up, Kasai demanded the summoning of people concerned to the Diet as sworn witnesses.

Past related articles:
> JCP Koike grills Abe over scandals of ‘Kake’ and cover-up of SDF’s ‘daily reports’ [July 26, 2017]
> JCP Kasai: PM Abe should dismiss defense minister [July 25, 2017]