Scandal-tainted arms dealers seek gains from U.S. military realignment projects

   In the November 16 House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, Japanese Communist Party representative Kasai Akira demanded that the government investigate the suspicion that scandal-tainted Japanese firms are attempting to exploit the project to relocate the Okinawa-based U.S. Marine Corps units to Guam under the pretext of “easing Okinawans’ base burdens.”

   The government last August held explanatory meetings for potential bidders to such projects in Tokyo and Osaka, and the U.S. government also held a similar meeting in Guam in the same month.

   In the Tokyo meeting, both Yamada Corporation, an arms dealer whose former executive, Miyazaki Motonobu, had repeatedly entertained former Vice Defense Minister Moriya Takemasa, and Nihon Mirise Corporation, an arms dealer founded by Miyazaki, took part.

   Among corporations that took part in the Guam meeting were Yamada Corporation and Ocean Development Inc., a U.S. consulting firm that made contracts with Japan Mirise.

   Kasai pointed out that in a Japan-U.S. ministerial meeting in May 2006, in which the two governments concluded the “Roadmap for Realignment Implementation,” then Defense Agency Director General Nukaga Fukushiro (currently Finance Minister), who, Moriya testified, attended a dinner party along with Moriya and Miyazaki, took part.

   Stressing that the relocation project, which will cost 1.2 trillion yen, must not be exploited for illicit purposes, Kasai demanded a thorough government investigation into the matter.

   Foreign Minister Komura Masahiko in reply agreed with Kasai’s assertion.
- Akahata, November 17, 2007