Roundup: Japan's DM rebuffs coverup accusations as GSDF mission logs scandal resurfaces

TOKYO, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Tuesday stood by claims that his ministry did not conceal documents connected to the highly contentious missions conducted overseas by the Self-Defense Forces, despite accusations to the contrary.

Onodera was referring to documents central to a coverup scandal last year that saw the Defense Ministry insist that the mission logs of the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF), controversially deployed to Iraq more than 10 years ago, did not exist.

The Defense Ministry finally admitted on Monday that it had found the logs, despite denying their existence to opposition parties in February last year.

Onodera said the documents were found as the ministry was taking steps to ensure that such a scandal would not reoccur.

The SDF's Ground Staff Office, according to the Defense Ministry, had confirmed the existence of the Iraq logs by January, but did not inform the Joint Staff Office until Feb. 27, with Onodera himself not being informed until a month later.

Onodera said he will look into why the information of the records reached him so late, but maintained that collecting the logs from overseas and going over the "massive" amount of information on the GSDF's overseas missions had taken time.

Japan controversially, between January 2004 to July 2006, sent around 5,500 GSDF service people to Iraq to provide humanitarian support in Samawah in southern Iraq.

This marked the first time Japan had deployed troops to a war-zone and the move drew nationwide condemnation for potentially thwarting the nation's war-renouncing Constitution.

Controversy over such contentious overseas GSDF missions and their "missing records" was reignited, when the Defense Ministry under Tomomi Inada last year claimed logs containing the daily activities of troops deployed to South Sudan on a UN peacekeeping mission had been discarded by GSDF members.

The ministry later said that a digital version of the logs, which eventually showed the security situation where the troops had been deployed was deteriorating, had been found.

Under intense media, public and political scrutiny over the coverup scandal, Inada handed in her resignation in July last year to account for the incident.

Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, meanwhile, told a press briefing Tuesday that it was too early to apportion blame and the Defense Ministry should first address the protracted issue internally.

Sources close to the mater, including those well-versed in Japan's SDF-related affairs, however, said the resurfacing of the scandal will likely see support for Abe's cabinet drop again significantly and may, once again, lead to the Defense Ministry admitting its blunders and forced to publicly account for them. Enditem