Unfit for Civilian Control

She never understands what civilian control is all about. According to multiple officials in Shinzo Abe administration, Minister of Defense, Tomomi Inada, approved the policy not to disclose the information of keeping diary on United Nations peace-keeping operation of Japanese Self-defense Force in South Sudan, which was announced to have been scrapped. It was proved that Inada has made a false statement to the Diet, to which she denied receiving any information from her staffs.

Ministry of Defense dispatched Ground Self-defense Force to South Sudan from January 2012 to this May. Receiving a request to disclose the diary made by SDF officers at the time of major battle in Juba last July, the Ministry decided not to open the diary with a reason that SDF had already discarded it. However, it was proved that the diary was not lost and remained in the computers of SDF as electronic data. The officers had written in the diary that they thought the exchange was “battle,” not “military collision” as Abe administration described, which would cause violation of a law not to send SDF to battlefield.

In the meeting with highly ranked officers in MoD and SDF on February 15^th, Inada received information that there was the diary, which had been announced as discarded. Then they discussed whether the information should be disclosed. The officers made an interpretation convenient for themselves that the information was not official document personally written by the SDF officials. Inada approved it without any question. Minister of Defense has to be a supervisor over uniformed officers to contribute to the right of the people for obtaining necessary information. Her job was far from sufficiency in terms of civilian control.

Inada was also a betrayer against the representatives of the people. To a question from a lawmaker with Democratic Party in the Committee on Security Affairs of House of Representatives on March 16^th, Inada answered that she had received no information from the officers. Now, it was revealed that she actually heard about it at least one month before.

Constitution of Japan requires the Cabinet to be responsible for the Diet, designating the Diet as the supreme state power. Providing with false information, Inada significantly degraded the Diet. She also made inappropriate statement in the campaign for the election of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly earlier this month, in which she asked vote for a candidate of Liberal Democratic Party as the top of SDF that could not legally have political preference. Prime Minister Abe is fundamentally responsible for assigning such an unconstitutional and illegal Minister of Defense.