More reports from overseas-dispatched GSDF troops unearthed

April 5, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Defense Ministry has announced the discovery of more daily reports from Ground Self-Defense Force troops dispatched overseas, including reports on GSDF activities in South Sudan.

The announcement on Wednesday night came on top of the revelation by Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera the same day that the GSDF has neglected for more than a year to report the existence of daily activity logs of Iraq-dispatched troops, despite disclosure requests from lawmakers.

According to the ministry's announcement, the daily logs, including of GSDF peacekeeping operations in the Golan Heights and Haiti, have been found stored on hard disk drives at the GSDF's International Peace Cooperation Activities Training Unit, or IPCAT.

On Feb. 16 last year, the ministry checked at the request of lawmakers whether IPCAT kept such daily reports, and concluded within the day that it did not. At a Diet meeting the following day, then Defense Minister Tomomi Inada reported the conclusion.

In March that year, a special inspection of the ministry started over a cover-up scandal involving daily reports from GSDF troops in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. The results of the inspection were released in July the same year.

The newly announced discovery may mean that the existence of daily logs at IPCAT was left unnoticed in the inspection or was not properly dealt with after the inspection.

The SDF Joint Staff was informed of the additional document discovery on Feb. 27 this year.

Also on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry corrected its earlier announcement that Iraq reports covering GSDF activities for a total of 376 days had been discovered. The number of days is actually 408, the ministry said. Jiji Press