The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, who served as the Self-Defense Forces' top nonuniformed official from August 2003 through August 2007, to 2 1/2 years in prison for taking bribes worth some ¥12.5 million and ordered him to pay the same amount in penalties. It also found him guilty of perjury for giving false testimony about his bribery allegations as a sworn witness in the Diet. The government, the Defense Ministry and the SDF should seriously reflect upon the court's judgment.
Moriya played key roles in dispatching an Air Self-Defense Force unit to Iraq, drafting plans for the realignment of U.S. forces in Okinawa and other parts of Japan, and upgrading the Defense Agency to ministry status. But he was found to have received bribes, mainly in the form of golf junkets, as a reward for giving favorable treatment to a defense contractor in the procurement of defense equipment, including a U.S.-manufactured engine for the ASDF's next-generation cargo plane.
The case reveals how one person wielded immense power for a long time over the procurement of defense equipment, underscoring the need to strengthen civilian control of both uniformed and nonuniformed SDF officials. Politicians must halt the deterioration of civilian control over the SDF.