New Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera vowed Thursday to restore public trust in his ministry following a data coverup scandal and said one of his main tasks is to review Japan's defense program guidelines last made in 2013 amid the growing North Korean missile threat.
"We will make sure the same problem will not happen again and make utmost efforts to revive public confidence," Onodera said at a press conference after he assumed the ministerial post, referring to the scandal that has thrown the Defense Ministry into disarray and led his predecessor, Tomomi Inada, to resign last week.
"The importance of information disclosure was not sufficiently recognized (inside the organization). ... I will make efforts so that the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces can work as one to deal with any kind of situation," he said.