The Ground Self-Defense Force Ground Staff Office helped reduce the punishment for a colonel arrested last Monday for allowing his civilian friends to fire a gun during a 1994 drill, sources at the Defense Agency said Monday.

The Tobu District Army reported to the Ground Staff Office in December 1994 that Yasunobu Hideshima, 53, deserved disciplinary punishment for his illegal conduct, but the Ground Staff Office decided only to admonish him, one of the most lenient penalties and one not usually publicized, the sources said.

The agency and the GSDF's in-house investigation committee are to question senior members of the Ground Staff Office in the belief that its personnel department arranged a coverup of the case.

According to previous reports, Hideshima allegedly allowed three civilian friends to use a GSDF gun and a machinegun during a November 1994 drill at a range in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The colonel is also suspected of firing a hunting rifle without police approval. The rifle was allegedly taken to the range by the colonel's friend.

The Self-Defense Forces Law requires SDF personnel to obtain police approval before firing guns that do not belong to the SDF, while the Firearm and Sword Control Law prohibits civilians from firing SDF guns.

According to the sources, Hideshima's superior at the time of the incident questioned him in early December 1994 after receiving a report from a GSDF member who witnessed the illegal firing.

His superior reported the case to the Tobu District Army in mid-December 1994 as a firearms law violation.

An official in charge of personnel affairs judged that it was appropriate to impose a disciplinary measure on Hideshima, such as suspension from duty. But the personnel department of the Ground Staff Office asked the official to issue a more lenient penalty, the sources said.

The case was reported to the then chief of staff of the GSDF on Dec. 22, 1994.

The personnel affairs official told Hideshima's superior in early January 1995 that Hideshima would only be admonished, but that he would be transferred.

Hideshima's superior confessed to the agency that he had said nothing about the gun and machinegun he allowed his friends to use during the drill, the sources said.

GSDF police arrested Hideshima and the three civilians only after the media publicized the case in January.