Misunderstanding or Lying

Minister of Defense, Tomomi Inada, is grilled in the Diet over her statements proved to be untrue. While she explained it as caused by false memory of herself, the opposite parties accused her of concealing inconvenient facts. Inada is known as picked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for unusual promotion to Defense Minister and usual gaffs over the policies. Her ability is questioned now.

Inada has been doubted as having close relationship with the head of an educational Moritomo Gakuen Corporation, Yasunori Kagoike, who is in the scandal of discounted disposal of land property of national government in Osaka. In the discussion of Budget Committee in House of Councillors on Monday, Inada insisted that she had not met with Kagoike for over ten years, dismissing Kagoike’s testimony that Inada was a corporate lawyer for Moritomo Gakuen.

The statement of Inada changed over a night. A news report revealed that Inada was in the court for a civil suit as a lawyer representing Moritomo Gakuen. Inada admitted that she attended as a deputy of her husband, who was lawyer too, and pulled down her words a day before as misunderstanding of the fact. “Because I was suddenly asked in the Committee, I answered based on my memory,” told Inada.

If a Minister is allowed to make a statement based on personal memory and overturn it because of its inconvenience, any Minister can make lies to the nation for one’s personal interest. The opposite parties accused Inada of her false statement as betrayal against the Diet.

A lawmaker with Democratic Party, Yasue Funayama, labeled it as a lie, presenting the fact weeks ago. “You were asked the same thing to my colleague weeks ago and answered that you had not make any legal advice to Moritomo. Why didn’t you reconfirm the fact and did discuss based on your memory? Do you realize your statement false?” asked Funayama. Inada reiterated that she did not have any memory of advising Moritomo. There appeared evidence that Inada had a meeting with Kagoike a few years ago, contradicting her argument that she had not met him over ten years. The opposite parties demanded resignation of Inada.

Inada has been repeating false statements after sitting Minister of Defense. She denied a description of “battle” in an official diary of the troops to South Sudan, because she thought the wording was inappropriate in light of Article 9 of Constitution of Japan. She looked disrespectful to facts and tending to distort them for her political interest. Even some lawmakers in the leading party questioned careless statement of Inada.