Defense lawmakers crowd around weapons procurement

   It was revealed on December 2 that the National Security Research Group (NSRG), made up of Dietmembers promoting military interests from Liberal Democratic, Komei, and Democratic parties, has frequently been having meetings with top executives of U.S. military suppliers such as Boeing and Raytheon to exchange information on missile defense-related equipment.

   Since its foundation in 1999, the NSRG, chaired by former Defense Agency Director General Kawara Tsutomu, has been playing a key role in serving vested U.S.-Japan military interests by hosting the Japan-U.S. Security Strategy Conference with the backing of the Japanese and U.S. arms industries while holding regular meetings with defense ministry officials with the rank of division chief or higher.

   Akahata has learned that this year the NSRG held at least the following meetings with U.S. company executives: luncheon meeting on April 24 with Boeing Vice President Stanley Roth and Boeing Japan President Nicole Piasecki; explanatory meetings on missile defense on June 12 and September 18; briefing by a Raytheon vice president on September 25; breakfast meeting with a Boeing executive on October 10; and breakfast meeting with Raytheon Chairman & CEO William Swanson on November 1.

   Boeing as well as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are currently trying to sell airborne laser systems to the Defense Ministry.

   Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji on a televised debate aired on December 2 stressed the need to reveal the truth about the NSRG as well as the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange in which politicians and executives of the arms industry gather under the name of study meetings.

   Pointing out that these two organizations are two sides of the same coin, Kokuta stressed that they are acting as intermediaries between Japan’s defense authorities and the U.S. arms industry.
- Akahata, December 3, 2007