11/22/2007Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga has made some incredible claims in responding to allegations of questionable relations with defense equipment trading house Yamada Corp. and Motonobu Miyazaki, a former Yamada senior executive.
Those suspicions were triggered by statements made last week by former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, who worked under Nukaga during his two stints as defense chief.
Speaking before the Diet under oath, Moriya said Nukaga was present at a wining and dining session that was also attended by Miyazaki, a former U.S. Defense Department official in charge of Japanese affairs, and himself.
Nukaga denied the allegation, saying he had neither records nor any recollection of such a meeting. Nukaga's claim flatly contradicts what Moriya told the Diet. It is quite likely that one of the two men lied.
One important fact, though, is that Moriya made the remarks during his Diet testimony as a sworn witness, which means he would face a perjury charge if he was untruthful. Thus, his remarks carry a lot of weight.
Nukaga's claim of memory loss is less than convincing.
Among other revelations, it has been said that Yamada purchased tickets worth a total of 2.2 million yen for Nukaga's fund-raising parties. Nukaga also received 200,000 yen in cash from Miyazaki to cover his transportation costs to the wedding of the daughter of Yamada's president. Nukaga's wife, who attended the wedding on behalf of Nukaga, returned the money as a congratulatory gift. Nukaga also played golf and attended study lunches with Miyazaki.
A former senior Defense Agency official has said Nukaga tried to use his political influence to help a construction company to take part in bidding for projects awarded by the Sendai Defense Facilities Administration Bureau. Nukaga has denied the allegations.
As lawmakers regularly meet many people, Nukaga might want to argue that politicians should not be criticized for the fact that some of them might have less-than-honest intentions.
By any yardstick, Nukaga's ties with Yamada clearly crossed the line of political ethics. What is even more serious is that Nukaga's questionable business links were not limited to Yamada.
Nukaga held four fund-raising parties in the form of breakfast-cum-study meetings during his second tenure as the Defense Agency head between 2005 and 2006. These parties raised a total of 57.1 million yen, including the sum paid by Yamada.
The code of conduct for ministers stipulates that politicians in important government positions should refrain from throwing large-scale fund-raising parties. That's because donations from specific businesses received by top officials could raise questions about the fairness of the administration.
Did Nukaga simply ignore the rule in organizing such fund-raisers? He defended his behavior on grounds those functions were not large, attended by only about 100 people. But how could parties that raised well over 10 million yen each time qualify as "small-scale" events as Nukaga claims? Listening to Nukaga's explanation, we can hardly believe our ears.
Soon after he became the Defense Agency chief for the first time in 1998, Nukaga was forced to step down to take responsibility for a breach of trust scandal within the agency concerning overpayments for defense purchases. Before leaving office, Nukaga implemented a series of reforms to strengthen the agency's ability to check if its equipment purchases are made at fair prices.
But this same politician developed the kind of relations that could only be described as cozy with a company that had a total of 17.4 billion yen of business dealings in five years with the Defense Agency, which was upgraded to ministry status in January this year. This is simply outrageous.
The government will soon start working on its draft budget for next fiscal year. If Nukaga remains as finance minister, putting him in charge of making financial decisions on all government appropriations, including defense outlays, the spending program is hardly likely to win public support. That's how serious the situation is.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 21(IHT/Asahi: November 22,2007)
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