Opposition lawmakers grilled Japan's defense minister yesterday over a widening defense funding scandal and said Tokyo should not resume aid to US-led operations in Afghanistan before allegations are cleared up.
Addressing the opposition legislators' questions yesterday 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 (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 US-led operations in Afghanistan.
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 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," the Japan Communist Party's Akira Kasai said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's two-month-old government has been rocked by allegations that Moriya accepted gifts worth some ¥3.9 million (US$35,850) from 2003 to last year in return for favorable treatment in granting contracts to defense trading companies that represented GE in Japan.
Moriya pushed for the ministry's 2004 to 2005 purchase of five GE 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 ¥600 million GE engine at the time, the Defense Ministry said.
While GE's Japan office has said an ongoing internal investigation at the US company has not found any illicit conduct among its employees, Ishiba said the defense ministry will conduct an investigation and consider reforms.
"It is true the arrest of a top bureaucrat reveals structural faults with the defense administration," Ishiba said.
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