Japan’s Defense Ministry in Crisis

The Ministry of Defense is grappling with the fallout from multiple highly publicized cases of misconduct within the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), ranging from the mishandling of state secrets to an entrenched acceptance of fraud, corruption, and power harassment among senior SDF personnel.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. He is battling to hold on to his job amid persistently low public approval ratings and rumors that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will not support Kishida’s re-election in the September LDP presidential elections.

All told, the Ministry of Defense announced disciplinary action for some 200 SDF personnel. The punishments range from termination of employment to warnings. The SDF is not in a position to simply dismiss a large number of personnel to address a culture of misconduct, as it is struggling to attract recruits amid Japan’s worsening labor shortage.

The scandals mainly affect the Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MSDF), of which 100 personnel have been punished for breaching the state secrets protection law. They are suspected of routinely sharing “specially designed secrets” pertaining to national security to unqualified people. There are 15 additional cases of inappropriate behavior around classified documents across the Japanese Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense Forces.

It has also been reported that more than 70 members of the MSDF were paid allowances of approximately $266,000 in total for courses they did not actually participate in, such as diving training.

Additionally, defense contractors and their subcontractors reportedly joined forces to file false invoices. Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) executives wined and dined with the MSDF to influence and win contracts to repair Japanese naval vessels. KHI is suspected of creating a slush fund through fabricated invoices to distribute gift cards, meals, and drinks for senior MSDF officers and personnel. KHI is now under special investigation by the Ministry of Defense and the National Tax Authority.

In late July, Kishida told local reporters that the unfolding sandals were a serious crisis for the government. He instructed Defense Minister Kihara Minoru to urgently clean up the mess and rebuild the organization.

At a press conference Kihara stated he would take “a firm leadership position to improve the organizational essence of the SDF.”

In response to the scandals, SDF Chief of Staff Admiral Sakai Ryo submitted his resignation and volunteered to take a one month pay cut, conceding that misconduct was rife under his watch. He told local reporters that there is a serious lack of compliance among troops and weak governance within the organization.

Kihara also announced a voluntary one month pay cut, but did not clarify whether he would resign or not.

The Japanese government plans to increase defense spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2027. In fiscal year 2024 the defense budget climbed to a record $57 billion, equivalent to 1.6 percent of GDP. The planned increase was already controversial for purely financial reasons; it’s unclear where Japan will get the extra money.

Now the SDF’s embarrassing series of scandals have significantly damaged public trust and dominated news headlines in Japan. It has prompted questions about whether the defense establishment can be trusted with more responsibility.

The opposition has called for the reorganization of the Ministry of Defense, saying that the ministry should be investigated from top to bottom for enabling misconduct to run rampant in the SDF. The Democratic Party of Japan even questioned whether the Ministry of Defense had deliberately delayed the public announcement of the scandal until after the extraordinary Diet session ended in June.

The scandal could have international ramifications as well. The embarrassing revelations come as Japan extends its Self-Defense Forces’ capabilities to bolster its responsibilities within the Japan-U.S. security alliance. The two allies are discussing opportunities to increase technological exchanges as well as plans for the U.S Navy to use Japanese shipyards for extensive repairs on vessels to reduce the time U.S naval vessels are out of service. New questions about SDF personnel’s handling of sensitive information, plus the accusations of impropriety regarding MSDF repair contracts, will thus raise concerns in the United States.

The organizational culture of Japan’s defense establishment is at the root of the crisis. The cozy relationship between the SDF and contractors and lack of leadership and communication from the Defense Ministry has given way to widespread, systematic impropriety at all levels of the defense establishment. Kishida’s government faces an impossible task of rebuilding the defense establishment before he is up for re-election in September. It will need to, at a bare minimum,  display a sincere understanding of the core problems plaguing the ministry and SDF and unveil a corrective plan to match the interconnected nature of the misconduct.