https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/30276949/

The Ministry of Defense punishes submarine crew members who "begged" for personal belongings, including game consoles, wallets, and watches.

Minister Koizumi: "We take this very seriously. We will take all possible measures to prevent a recurrence."

The Ministry of Defense has suspended three supervisors for five to 15 days and cut the salaries of eight submarine crew members as disciplinary action against them for accepting game consoles, watches, wallets, and other items provided by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which had been contracted to repair submarines for the Maritime Self-Defense Force, and keeping them for personal use.

One member of the force received a total of 400,000 yen worth of goods, bringing the total amount of goods illegally received by the 11 members to 1.16 million yen.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries provided the goods using slush funds raised through fictitious transactions.

In response to this issue, Defense Minister Koizumi issued the following statement: "This has undermined the public's trust in the Ministry of Defense and the Self-Defense Forces, and as Minister of Defense I take this very seriously. The trust of the public is essential for the implementation of various policies to fulfill our country's defense and for the smooth operation of the Self-Defense Forces, and the most important thing in restoring trust is to take thorough measures to prevent recurrence so that such an incident does not occur again."

In July, the Ministry of Defense also took disciplinary action against 93 personnel involved in receiving items for non-personal use, such as equipment for use on submarines, bringing the total number of people disciplined for the series of irregularities to 104.