The Ground Self-Defense Force should not have led reporters to believe its top commander was in Japan when he was, in fact, traveling to Iraq, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Monday.
"We should never do anything misleading," Ishiba told a House of Councilors special committee on the reconstruction of Iraq, adding that he has told the GSDF to reflect on this deception.
On Wednesday, the GSDF said that Chief of Staff Gen. Hajime Massaki would attend his regular news conference as usual Thursday afternoon but canceled the conference just one hour before it was to take place.
He had already left Japan earlier Wednesday, arriving Thursday afternoon in the southern city of Samawah.
Some 550 GSDF troops are deployed in Samawah on humanitarian and reconstruction missions.
"We will have to keep in mind never to black out news or manipulate reports in a manner similar to the Imperial Headquarters" that led Japan's militarism during World War II, Ishiba said.
"Efforts to ensure safety are important," he said. "But the dispatch of (troops) by a democratic nation should be backed by the press and the public."
Massaki, the first top-ranking official of the Defense Agency or the Self-Defense Forces to visit Iraq, held a news conference Friday to boost the morale of troops at the GSDF camp in Samawah.
Facing angry reporters, GSDF officers soon apologized, though Defense Agency officials explained the move was aimed at concealing Massaki's itinerary to thwart potential terrorist attacks.
On Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda voiced understanding over this strategy.
"It was a judgment made by the SDF in view of considerations for safety," Fukuda said. "It cannot be said wrong outright."