Former Japan defense official arrested

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 7 minutes ago

TOKYO - A former top Japanese defense bureaucrat and his wife were arrested Wednesday on suspicion they accepted lavish gifts from companies — including one linked to General Electric — in exchange for contracts, officials said.

The bribery scandal also implicates the current finance minister who twice served as defense minister.

Photo: Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya leaves his house for prosecutors office in Tokyo, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007. Prosecutors interrogated a former top Japanese defense official Wednesday over allegations he was treated to golf trips and pricey dinners by companies in exchange for favoring them in contracts, officials said.

The scandal has hobbled the two-month-old government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, including its effort to renew Japan's anti-terrorism naval mission in support of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. Japanese ships returned earlier this week from the Indian Ocean, ending a six-year mission after opposition parties blocked an extension.

The latest developments threaten to further weaken the government.

Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, 63, was arrested on suspicion he accepted a dozen free golf trips worth about $35,850 from 2003 to 2006, knowing that favors were expected in return, the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office said.

He was detained after hours of questioning at the prosecutor's office, and media reports said investigators also raided his home to search for more evidence.

Moriya's wife, Sachiko, 56, was also arrested on suspicion of bribery, the prosecutor's office said.

Moriya faces allegations that he gave favorable treatment in granting contracts to two defense trading companies led by Motonobu Miyazaki, who was charged Wednesday with embezzlement in a related scandal. Prosecutors said Miyazaki was also being investigated for alleged bribery.

Moriya, who retired in August, has acknowledged that Miyazaki, a former executive of Yamada Yoko Corp., treated him and his wife hundreds of times to golf trips, expensive dinners and other gifts in the past decade.

Miyazaki, who later left Yamada Yoko and founded his own company, Nihon Mirise Corp., also gave Moriya $1,845 in cash as a birthday gift, according to local media reports. Moriya, who served as the ministry's No. 2 official for four years, argued during recent parliamentary testimony that they were gifts, not bribery.

"The arrest of someone who held such a serious post has damaged public trust in the country's defense. It is extremely regrettable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

Moriya is suspected of influencing the ministry's 2004-2005 purchase of five General Electric Co. C-X engines for next-generation Japanese cargo aircraft, media reports said.

The deal was handled without bids by Yamada Yoko, which was a Japanese agent for the $5.52 million GE engine at the time, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing ministry policy.

The planned purchase of a sixth C-X engine through Mirise, which became the sole Japanese agent for the engine a month before Moriya's retirement, is stalled. GE suspended its contract with Mirise following the scandal, the Defense Ministry spokeswoman said.

GE's Japan office spokeswoman, Chika Miyamori, said the U.S. company's ongoing internal investigation "has not found any misconduct among its employees" related to the scandal.

"It is unfortunate that the sales agency failed to observe our compliance requirement," she said, adding that GE was fully cooperating with Japanese authorities in the investigation.

Prosecutors have three weeks to complete their investigation and decide which, if any, charges to level against the suspects.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan contends that Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga — who was defense chief in 1998 and 2005 — has ties with Moriya and Miyazaki, and that he met the two last year at a dinner in Tokyo. Moriya acknowledged Nukaga's presence at the dinner during his parliamentary testimony, but Nukaga denied Tuesday that he was there.

Moriya and Nukaga were to be summoned to a parliamentary committee Monday at the request of opposition lawmakers, officials said. Both of them have denied bribery allegations.

Fukuda defended Nukaga, saying there was no evidence against him and that he should stay in his post.