Defense Ministry to Deny Cover-Up of Iraq Mission Logs

May 23, 2018

Tokyo- The Defense Ministry is set to deny an organizational cover-up of daily logs on the Ground Self-Defense Force's 2004-2006 mission in Iraq, in a report on its investigation into the discovery of the documents, which were initially claimed to have no longer existed, government sources said Tuesday.

The report, due to be released as early as Wednesday, will conclude that the GSDF's Ground Research and Development Command failed to report the discovery of the documents for 10 months because related officials found little need to do so, according to the sources.

The ministry plans to reprimand more than 10 officials over the matter, but most of them are likely to escape punishments.

In February 2017, then Defense Minister Tomomi Inada told parliament that the ministry was unable to find the documents after receiving a disclosure request from the opposition camp.

However, incumbent Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera announced early last month that the GSDF documents had been actually discovered. The GSDF Ground Staff Office learned of the discovery in January this year, and Onodera was informed in March.

Onodera then launched an investigation team including Koichi Ueda, former head of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office. Jiji Press