The Defense Agency has concluded that a senior Ground Self-Defense Force officer's recent drafting of a constitutional amendment did not breach the principle of civilian control over the military.

The officer handed the draft to Gen Nakatani, a House of Representatives member and former Defense Agency chief, as a "personal" proposal, the agency said in a report on an internal probe into the controversy, adding that it saw no major legal problems connected to the act.

The officer has been identified only as a lieutenant colonel assigned to the Plans and Operations Department of the Ground Staff Office. He drafted the amendment at the request of Nakatani, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker.

GSDF Chief of Staff Tsutomu Mori nevertheless verbally reprimanded the officer for "having caused misunderstanding to the public that the SDF as an organization was involved in the work of revising the Constitution."

Lt. Gen. Ryoichi Oriki, vice chief of staff of the GSDF, headed the agency committee that probed the case.

According to the report, the officer compiled the draft on Oct. 16 to 17, a few days before Nakatani was named chief of the LDP's panel tasked with compiling the party's draft proposal for constitutional amendment.

The report says the lieutenant colonel faxed the draft from his GSDF office to Nakatani on Oct. 22. Nakatani then distributed copies of the draft as his own personal proposal during a meeting of the LDP panel later that day. The report says about 30 lawmakers attended the meeting.

Nakatani was a uniformed officer before being elected to the House of Representatives. He later became director general of the Defense Agency.

The agency report says the officer "did not know" that Nakatani was to be head of the LDP constitutional panel.

It concludes that the officer created the draft "in his personal capacity" because he did it during his off-duty hours "based on the recognition that it would be only used for personal study" by Nakatani.

The officer's superior, identified only as a GSDF colonel, was similarly punished for failing to properly handle the issue.

While the colonel had been notified of Nakatani's request, he had no further involvement in the case, the report says.

The document, titled "Constitution Draft," consists of eight articles under a chapter titled "National Security."

The draft says Japan will "renounce military threat, use of force and war as a means of settling international disputes." But it calls on Japan to clearly state that it possesses a military force for national defense.

It also says Japan should engage in collective defense and make national defense the "duty" of every citizen.

The war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained," although it has been interpreted as allowing Japan to use forces for defense.