Prosecutors search Defense Ministry over bribery scandal

TOKYO, Nov. 29 KYODO
Nov. 29 19:41

Prosecutors searched the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tokyo on Thursday to back up bribery allegations involving former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya and former defense equipment trading house executive Motonobu Miyazaki.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office deployed some 100 officers for the search operation following its arrest Wednesday of Moriya, 63, on suspicion of taking bribes from Miyazaki, a 69-year-old former executive of Yamada Corp., in the form of golf outings when he was still the top defense bureaucrat.

The locations the officers searched included the office of the vice defense minister, investigative sources said.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called the latest development in the scandal ''shameful'' and told reporters that the issue should be fully investigated to prevent a recurrence.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masahiro Futahashi urged all ministries and agencies at a meeting of vice ministers to carry out a full-scale check on ethical compliance and to report on measures to prevent any recurrence.

Top ministry officials said that while they are cooperating with the investigation, confiscation of documents and other materials could affect routine work, including Self-Defense Forces operations.

Vice Defense Minister Kohei Masuda said at a press conference, ''We'll fully cooperate with the investigation...even if the search could affect our daily work, we have to accept it.''

Top Self-Defense Force commander Adm. Takashi Saito said separately that he found the situation leading to the arrest of Moriya and subsequent searches of the ministry ''very deplorable,'' adding that he cannot say there will be no adverse effect on SDF operations.

''But I don't recognize any effect on the readiness'' of the SDF for any emergency, said Saito, the Joint Staff Office chief.

The ministry has started to distribute to all its officials and SDF members totaling about 260,000 an ethics card that lists incompliance acts.

Meanwhile, the sources said Miyazaki, who founded another defense firm called Nihon Mirise Corp. after leaving Yamada last year, has admitted that he treated Moriya to golf outings with the motive of seeking business favors from him over ministry procurements.

The sources said the prosecutors suspect Moriya suggested to his subordinates several times from spring this year that the ministry should sign a discretionary contract on jet engine procurement with Nihon Mirise.

If Moriya in fact made such suggestions, it would contradict earlier remarks he made before a parliamentary panel in October as a sworn witness and leave him open to perjury charges.

At that time he said he had had discussions with his subordinates June 14 on the method of the contract but accepted their explanation that Finance Ministry policy currently allows the ministry to sign a discretionary contract only if it cannot find any bidder in a public tender.

Moriya has repeatedly denied insisting on a discretionary contract or giving favors to Miyazaki.

The prosecutors are apparently aware of the information on Moriya's alleged suggestions, suspecting Moriya may have pushed for awarding Miyazaki's company a major contract, the sources said.

The engines in question are made by General Electric Co. of the United States for the Air Self-Defense Force's next-generation defense transport aircraft called the CX.

In July this year, Nihon Mirise obtained the right to sell the engines, a right previously held by Yamada.

Prosecutors on Wednesday arrested Moriya and his wife Sachiko on suspicion of taking bribes worth 3.98 million yen in the form of golf outings from August 2003 to May 2006. They also served a fresh arrest warrant on Miyazaki on a charge of giving bribes to Moriya.

Miyazaki was arrested earlier in the month for suspected corporate embezzlement.

==Kyodo

Ex-Pentagon official denies having dined with Nukaga in Tokyo

Nov. 29 TOKYO, Japan
Former U.S. Defense Department official James Auer speaks during a press conference Nov. 29 at the headquarters of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Tokyo. Auer again denied having dined in Tokyo last Dec. 4 with Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga who has been hit by allegations of having had cozy ties with an indicted defense equipment trader. (Kyodo)

Japan prosecutors search Defence Ministry

REUTERS
3:27 a.m. November 29, 2007

TOKYO – About a hundred Japanese prosecutors filed into the vast Defence Ministry complex in central Tokyo on Thursday, in search of evidence in a bribery case involving the ministry's former top official.

Takemasa Moriya was arrested the previous day after he admitted he had been treated to hundreds of expensive golf trips and other forms of entertainment by defence contractor Motonobu Miyazaki.

Moriya's wife, Sachiko, who was present on many of the trips, was also arrested.

'We'll fully cooperate with the investigation, Vice Defence Minister Kohei Masuda told a news conference.

'Even if the search could affect our daily work, we have to accept it.'

The case has threatened to affect Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, after Moriya testified under oath in parliament this month that he believed Nukaga had been present at a dinner party he attended with Miyazaki at an exclusive Tokyo restaurant.

The main opposition Democratic Party called for Nukaga to answer questions in parliament on the issue.

But a former Pentagon official who was present at the dinner said on Thursday that Nukaga was not there.

'I have met Mr. Nukaga several times because he was a former defence minister,' James Auer, now a professor at Vanderbilt University in the United States, told a news conference at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters.

'I met him at his office in the Diet (parliament) and also at his office at the defence ministry when he was defence minister. However, to the best of my knowledge, I have never had dinner or lunch or breakfast with Mr. Nukaga.'

Miyazaki was a top executive with Yamada Corp, until this year the sales agent in Japan for General Electric, but later left to set up his own firm. General Electric switched its contract to Miyazaki's new company, Nihon Mirise, in July, media reports say, but has since suspended business with both firms.

Miyazaki has also been arrested for suspected embezzlement and bribery.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Quote of the Day

The Japanese always say all we want is money, but I don't want it. I want an official apology. They have to come out and say 'it was cruel and it was our fault.'
Dutchwoman Ellen van der Ploeg, who was captured by the Japanese in Indonesia during World War II and forced to be a sex slave. (Kyodo)

Union calls Friday strike after government refuses to budge

Date Posted: 2007-11-29

The Zenchuro, the General Labor Union of Japanese Garrison Workers, will stage a 24-hour strike Friday in response to the Defense Ministry’s failure to drop plans for slashing salaries 5~10%.

A fourth meeting between Kazuo Yamagawa, leader of the labor union, and the Defense Ministry failed to produce a breakthrough, setting the stage for a second strike. The government had promised the labor union “We would do their best” to consider the Zenchuro’s demand the pay cuts be shelved. Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday, but Yamagawa says “I know both sides, and the gap is not yet narrowed, but I feel this time the Ministry of Self Defense is seeking a compromise. With the workers.”

Still, Yamagawa says the union has no choice but to announce the strike. “Now it’s time to show our strong will,” he says. “We must fight until we get back our full salaries.” If the government backs down and meets union demands, Yamagawa says the strike will be cancelled.

Friday’s strike will last 24 hours, the union says, and will include demonstrators posted at gates to American military installations. The Zenchuro conducted a four-hour strike November 21st, the first nationwide strike in 16 years. The union represents two-thirds of the 26,000 Japanese workers on U.S. bases.

It is unclear how much the strike will affect operations of on-base retail and food outlets. An AAFES official said that all gasoline stands, BX, PX, shoppettes and food outlets will stay open as much as possible with AAFES’s American staff.

According to reports on AFN, Food Courts on Foster and Kadena are expected to close sometime in the afternoon. Child development centers on Kadena are scheduled to close at 11 a.m. Commissary operation hours may also be affected. DoD schools will be open as usual.

The Defense Ministry plans to cut wages 5~10% in an effort to save ¥10 billion each year. The government says the special nature of jobs with the U.S. military has changed, a point the union challenges. “Absolutely nothing has changed,” a union official says. The Zenchuro contends worker salaries are actually lower than that of other Japanese civil servants, pointing out that its workers are prohibited for receiving compensation for work related accidents without permission from the American military.

The union notes that the Japanese Labor Standards Law and other domestic labor laws do not apply to those working for the American military, and rejects the ministry plan to abolish special payments designed to offset tenuous job conditions that may get worse as the Japan-U.S. military realignment agreement goes into effect.

Pentagon protests China navy snub

The Pentagon says it has sent a formal protest to Beijing over China's recent refusal to allow visits by US navy ships to Hong Kong.

"We are expressing officially our displeasure," Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters in Washington, describing the Chinese decisions as "baffling".

The move follows the barring of a Thanksgiving visit last week by the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and several support ships.

Photo: The Kitty Hawk had planned to dock in Hong Kong for the Thanksgiving holiday

Days earlier Chinese authorities had also rejected a request by two US minesweepers seeking shelter in Hong Kong from a storm.

On Thursday a Chinese communist party-owned newspaper signalled a possible cause of the row, blaming a US decision to sell an anti-missile defence system to Taiwan.

Citing an unnamed colonel in the Chinese military, it said the decision "obviously sent the wrong signals" to Taiwan's leaders, who Beijing accuses of seeking to declare formal independence.

"At a time when the US side is seriously harming China's interests, there is no logic under heaven by which China should then be expected to open its heart and embrace him," the paper said.

The issue of the port visits was also brought up at the White House on Wednesday during talks between George Bush, the president, and the visiting Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi.

Yang reportedly told Bush the case of the Kitty Hawk was based on a "misunderstanding", a White House spokeswoman said, although no mention was made of the barred minesweepers.

Last week's decision to block the Kitty Hawk visit was initially explained away by the Chinese authorities saying they had not received advance notice of the visit.

They then said the carrier group would be allowed to dock, but by that time navy commanders had decided the ships would head back to their home port in Japan.

The Kitty Hawk has made several previous visits to Hong Kong, a port that has been used as a regular "R&R" stop for US warships since the time of the Vietnam war.

'Baffling'

Navy officials have said that while the Kitty Hawk case received most attention, they are most troubled by China's refusal to let the two navy minesweepers enter Hong Kong harbour to escape an approaching storm and refuel.

Photo: The row follows an apparently successful visit to China by the US defence secretary

"It is not, in our view, conduct that is indicative of a country who understands its obligations as a responsible nation," Admiral Tim Keating, head of the US Pacific Command, told reporters on Tuesday in a video conference from his headquarters in Hawaii.

The minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, were instead refuelled at sea and returned safely to their home port in Japan.

"It is baffling," Morrell told reporters at the Pentagon. "It's regrettable and we have not to date received sufficient explanation as to why it took place."

He said the Chinese defence attache in Washington had been summoned from the Chinese embassy on Wednesday to receive the formal protest.

Beijing has previously barred US warships from Hong Kong during times of crisis in US-Chinese relations, such as the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and after a US P-3 spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter in 2001, he said.

But the latest dispute apparently caught US officials by surprise, coming just three weeks after what appeared to be a successful visit to Beijing by the US defence secretary.

During the visit Robert Gates urged Beijing to step up contacts between the two countries' militaries to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculations.

UPDATED ON:
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2007
6:49 MECCA TIME, 3:49 GMT

Ex-defence aide held by Japan's prosecutors

By David Pilling in Tokyo

Published: November 29 2007 02:00

Japanese prosecutors yesterday arrested a former top defence official as part of a widening investigation into alleged collusion between defence contractors and the ministry.

The investigation, reminiscent of the inquiry into the Lockheed scandal in the mid-1970s that destroyed the reputation of Kakuei Tanaka, the former prime minister, came to a head yesterday when Takemasa Moriya, vice-minister of defence until August, was shown on television being driven away by prosecutors.

In parliamentary testimony in October, Mr Moriya had admitted to being treated to hundreds of rounds of golf by Motonobu Miyazaki, a former executive with a trading house specialising in defence, in breach of his ministry's entertainment guidelines. But he denied that he had extended preferential treatment to Yamada, the company for which Mr Miyazaki worked.

Mr Miyazaki was arrested this month for alleged embezzlement of more than $1m (€680,000, £480,000).

Allegations of corruption have cast a shadow over the defence ministry, which was upgraded from an agency only last year.

Yasuo Fukuda, the prime minister, said yesterday the ministry would have to "work hard to regain public trust" as the scandal threatened to scale the reaches of the ruling party.

Japan's upper house - controlled by the opposition Democratic party - has moved to summon Fukushiro Nukaga, currently the finance minister but previously director of the defence agency, to answer questions next Monday regarding the alleged collusion with -contractors.

Commenting on Mr Moriya's arrest, Nobutaka Machimura, the chief cabinet secretary, said: "It is quite regrettable as it has damaged public trust of the defence administration."

The investigation into Mr Moriya has centred on contracts to supply engines for the Japanese air force's next-generation of transport aircraft. The defence ministry is well known for paying inflated prices for equipment, although that is partly because Tokyo insists that a high proportion is manufactured in Japan.

The inquiry has further emboldened the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which in October stymied a bill to extend the six-year mission to the Indian Ocean, Japan's contribution to anti-terrorism operations around Afghanistan

The opposition has also threatened to veto a new bill, submitted to the upper house yesterday, aimed at restarting operations under a more limited mandate. Its objections have brought the administration of Mr Fukuda to a standstill, leading some political analysts to speculate that the new prime minister will be forced to dissolve parliament in search of a clear mandate.

In an interview with the Financial Times this month, Mr Fukuda hinted that he would delay an election as long as -possible.