The Yomiuri Shimbun
A senior executive of a Foreign Ministry-related body who was arrested last week on suspicion of income tax evasion pressured Defense Agency officials to incorporate Kobe Steel Ltd. technology in contracts for work to dispose of chemical weapons, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
Kobe Steel, which won the contract to dispose of poison gas shells found at Kanda Port in Kandamachi, Fukuoka Prefecture, sent 450,000 dollars to a U.S.-based company with ties to Naoki Akiyama, an executive director of the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange, according to sources.
The company also won all the contracts for the five-phase disposal project--deals worth a combined 26.9 billion yen.
In 2000, 57 poison gas shells abandoned by the former Imperial Japanese Army were found on the seabed around Kanda Port, prompting the then Defense Agency to come up with a plan to dispose of the weapons.
The agency asked the Japan-U.S. center to conduct a preliminary probe on disposal methods for the weapons.
The center submitted a report to the ministry recommending it dispose of the weapons in a special detonation chamber--a technology developed by Kobe Steel--in March 2003, the sources said.
However, more than 500 poison gas shells were later found so the agency considered adopting a more effective method for disposing of a large amount of such weapons.
The agency sought public tenders for the project in October 2003 and did not include any restrictions of acceptable disposal methods.
According to sources close to the agency, Akiyama sent the agency a document dated Nov. 14, 2003, that said, "We won't accept any responsibility if a method different from one we have suggested is adopted."
"I felt like Akiyama was trying to pressure us to adopt the method requiring Kobe Steel's technology," an official who worked for a section dealing with the project said.
Kobe Steel won the contract in a bid held three days later.
The company transferred 450,000 dollars in consultancy fees to a U.S.-based company with ties to Akiyama in 2004 and 2005.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad is investigating the transfer of these funds.
Kobe Steel has denied any improper dealings over the contracts.
"We didn't ask Akiyama to help us win the bids or to act as an intermediary," a Kobe Steel spokesman said.
(Jul. 27, 2008)
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