Japanese defence minister to resign over South Sudan cover-up claims

Japan’s defence minister, Tomomi Inada, is to resign over claims she helped cover up internal records that exposed the danger Japanese peacekeepers faced in South Sudan.^[1]

The scandal adds to the political woes of Shinzō Abe, who has faced a string of local election losses and seen his cabinet’s popularity plummet to the lowest level since he returned to the prime ministership in 2012.

Inada’s departure will also trigger new leadership in the defence portfolio at a time of growing tensions with North Korea, which recently tested a missile that may be capable of reaching Alaska^[2].

The minister is expected to submit her resignation letter to Abe on Friday, local media reported, citing government sources. That would coincide with the release of the findings of an investigation into how politically embarrassing details of the South Sudan peacekeeping mission^[3] were concealed from the public. It also comes as Abe prepares to reshuffle his cabinet and the top ranks of the Liberal Democratic party next week.

Under Japanese law, self-defence force personnel are banned from overseas peacekeeping unless the warring parties maintain a ceasefire. However, daily activity logs kept by the ground self-defence forces referred to combat between government and rebel forces in South Sudan.

Critics believe the accounts could have undermined the mission’s continuation, while casting a shadow over Abe’s new security laws^[4] expanding the potential scope of Japanese peacekeeping activities.

Japan’s defence ministry claimed late last year that it could not release the July 2016 logs because they had been discarded. In February this year, however, the ministry partially released information it said it had found on a computer.

Inada repeatedly denied involvement in any cover-up, but a memo leaked to a TV station earlier this week indicated she had asked senior defence officials on 13 February what she should say in answering parliamentary questions the following day. Two days later Inada reportedly attended a meeting where a decision was made not to reveal the discovery of additional data.

The defence ministry’s top bureaucrat, Tetsuro Kuroe, and the chief of staff to the ground self-defence forces, Gen Toshiya Okabe, are also to resign over the scandal, Kyodo News reported.

Inada, an Abe protege appointed as defence minister a year ago, was seen by some as a potential future contender to be Japan’s first female prime minister, but her image has been damaged by the cover-up claims and several gaffes.

While the Abe cabinet’s approval rating has dropped below 30% in some polls, the main opposition Democratic party has failed to gain traction and also fared badly in the Tokyo metropolitan election on 2 July. The Democratic party’s first female leader, Renhō, who goes by one name, also announced on Thursday she would resign.

References

1. ^{^} South Sudan (www.theguardian.com)
2. ^{^} may be capable of reaching Alaska (www.theguardian.com)
3. ^{^} South Sudan peacekeeping mission (www.reuters.com)
4. ^{^} Abe’s new security laws (www.theguardian.com)