The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office's special investigative squad plans this week to take tough action, possibly involving the arrest of former Administrative Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya on suspicion of taking bribes, sources said Monday.
Officers from the prosecutors office believe Motonobu Miyazaki, a former executive at defense contractor Yamada Corp., wined and dined Moriya so as to win contracts to supply defense equipment, including the engines for the CX next-generation transport aircraft, to the Air Self-Defense Force, a move that could be considered bribery.
As Moriya made remarks that could be construed as urging ministry officials to award discretionary contracts, the officials said they felt they had been put under pressure to act in a certain way.
According to the officials, since about 11 years ago, Moriya has played golf and been entertained more than 300 times, with the bills being footed by Miyazaki.
The money paid to cover the golf outings and wining and dining totaled more than 5 million yen in the last five years. The statute of limitations on accepting bribes is five years.
The officers have questioned Yamada employees, including Miyazaki, and about 40 Defense Ministry staff, including senior officials, in an effort to shed light on the purpose of the entertainment.
According to the officials, on June 14, a meeting was held at the ministry to discuss methods for procuring the CX engines from General Electric Co. of the United States.
At that time, the GE sales agent was unofficially switched from Yamada to Nihon Mirise Co., a rival company established by Miyazaki in September last year.
At the meeting, an official of the ministry's Aircraft Division said a contract would be awarded on discretionary terms if bidding failed to settle on a winner. However, Moriya disagreed with this method, saying that he could not understand why discretionary contracts could not be allowed.
"There's only one sales agent. So, it goes without saying the contract should be awarded on discretionary terms," Moriya reportedly said. The ministry official told investigators that Moriya's remarks in effect put him under pressure to award the contract to Mirise.
The investigating officials believe this account proves Moriya used his influence to give an advantage to Nihon Mirise.
In August 2003 when Miyazaki was a Yamada executive, the former Defense Agency's equipment screening council, chaired by Moriya, decided to use CX engines from GE.
The officers suspect that when Miyazaki worked for Yamada, he entertained Moriya with an eye to receiving special treatment to win contracts for supplying defense equipment, including the CX engines.
Moriya, on the other hand, believed that Miyazaki had an ax to grind.
(Nov. 27, 2007)
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