Japan Opposition Lawmakers Question Defense Min Over Scandal

Dow Jones
December 01, 2007: 11:11 PM EST

TOKYO (AP)--Opposition lawmakers grilled Japan's defense minister Sunday over a widening defense funding scandal and said Tokyo shouldn't resume aid to U.S.- led operations in Afghanistan before allegations are cleared up.

Addressing the opposition legislators' questions Sunday on a TV talk show Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba promised a comprehensive investigation.

Prosecutors raided the Defense Ministry last week over the scandal, which has triggered the arrest of a former top bureaucrat over allegations he was bribed by a contractor linked to General Electric Co. (GE).

The opposition bloc has used the scandal to slow progress on legislation to renew the country's naval mission to supply fuel to warships participating in U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.

Speaking on the TV talk show opposition legislators said the recent disclosures were indicative of bribery at top levels of the ministry, and that renewal of Japan's refueling activities was out of the question until all allegations were cleared up.

"The problem doesn't lie just with Moriya. It goes much, much deeper than that," said Keiichiro Asao of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, referring to former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, arrested last week over bribery charges.

"We shouldn't be giving out oil, we should be draining the pus from a corrupt system," said Akira Kasai of the Japan Communist Party.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's two-month-old government has been rocked by allegations that Moriya accepted gifts worth some Y3.9 million from 2003 to 2006 in return for favorable treatment in granting contracts to defense trading companies that represented GE in Japan.

Moriya pushed for the ministry's 2004-2005 purchase of five General Electric C-X engines for next-generation Japanese cargo aircraft, media reports alleged.

The deal was handled - without bids - by the contractor Yamada Yoko, which acted as Japanese agent for the Y600 million GE engine at the time, according to the Defense Ministry.

GE's Japan office has said an ongoing internal investigation at the U.S. company hasn't found any illicit conduct among its employees.

Ishiba said the Defense Ministry will investigation and consider reforms.

"It is true the arrest of a top bureaucrat reveals structural faults with defense administration," Ishiba told the talk show. "We must thoroughly discuss reform measures in parliament."