Defense chief Hosei Norota told some 650 agency officials at a hastily arranged meeting Thursday to tighten discipline following a recent series of scandals involving members of the Self-Defense Forces.

The gathering at the Defense Agency was held at the request of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi after Norota officially announced earlier in the day that top SDF officers would be penalized in connection with the accidental firing in February of live shells from a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer.

The shells fired from the Haruna flew over Fukui Prefecture and into a mountain forest on Feb. 18. No one was reported hurt in the incident.

Norota told a press conference that the 39-year-old petty officer 2nd class who mixed the live shells with blanks, leading to the accidental firing, will be suspended from duty for 30 days starting Friday. The officer, whose name has been withheld, reportedly did not believe the rounds would eventually be fired.

A total of 18 agency personnel will be punished to take responsibility for the incident and the subsequent delay in reporting the accident to agency headquarters in Tokyo, Norota said.

Gen. Hideaki Kaneda, commander of the Yokosuka-based MSDF Fleet Escort Force, tendered his resignation after receiving a 10-day suspension from duty for failing to report the accident to his superiors. The resignation was accepted by Norota the same day.

The news came to light in June when Gen. Yukio Fujita, chief of staff at the MSDF, was tipped off as to the incident by a former MSDF member. The Defense Agency began an in-house probe the same month.

The name of the MSDF gunner has not been released under the Defense Agency's policy of withholding the names of members below petty officer rank involved in wrongdoing, said Gen. Fujita.

During a live-fire exercise in December aboard the Haruna, the gunner failed to use up the 100 shells provided for the one-minute drill. He hid the two remaining shells in the belief that it would earn him a higher evaluation, said Fujita.

During the meeting, Norota also said he is ashamed of the SDF's involvement in other wrongdoings, including cheating during MDSF promotion exams in March and the bribery scandal revealed late last month involving construction projects at the SDF's Komaki Air Base in Aichi Prefecture.