Two of Japan's former defense chiefs, including one who is now finance minister, were accused yesterday of dining with a military contractor in a corruption scandal that has rocked political circles.
A recently retired top bureaucrat of the defense ministry, Takemasa Moriya, has triggered a storm by saying former defense chiefs Fumio Kyuma and Fukushiro Nukaga joined him at dinners with the contractor.
Summoned to parliament yesterday to give sworn testimony, Moriya admitted the contractor also treated him to fine dining, gifts and more than 200 golf trips.
"I think those people were Mr Kyuma and Mr Nukaga," Moriya said when asked by an opposition lawmaker who joined him at an unspecified number of dinners with the Yamada Corp executive.
Nukaga served as head of the Defense Agency from 2005 to last year and was named finance minister when Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda took over in September.
Kyuma was Nukaga's successor as defense chief and was serving earlier this year when officially pacifist Japan upgraded the job to that of a fully fledged defense minister for the first time since World War II.
The widening scandal is likely to further complicate Fukuda's efforts to restart Japan's naval mission in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan -- stalled by opposition parties in control of parliament's upper house.
The opposition, which won control of one house of parliament in July elections, has seized on the scandal, earlier saying it was a higher priority than discussing a resumption of Japan's support for the US-led "war on terror."
The opposition forced a suspension this month of Japan's naval mission offering fuel and logistical support in the Indian Ocean to US-led forces in Afghanistan.
"It appears that the contractor approached various politicians, not just Moriya," said Yasunori Sone, a political science professor at Keio University in Tokyo.
"If Nukaga had to quit, that would damage Fukuda and make it even harder to enact the new bill enabling the naval mission," he said, adding there was speculation the scandal might widen beyond just Nukaga.
Moriya has denied giving any favors in exchange for the gifts, but said he would accept punishment if he is charged and convicted.
"If it is deemed that this merits criminal punishment, I have no intention of walking away from it," he said.
It could also damage the image of Fukuda's government as the Japanese leader struggles to implement policies in the face of the divided parliament, analysts said.
Media reports have said Nukaga, who has quit Cabinet posts twice in the past over scandals, received cash from the contractor.
Nukaga has said that he returned the cash and he has denied having any special ties to the firm.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of