In a revelation that has reignited doubts over civilian control of the Self-Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry's handling of data, the ministry has said that the existence of controversial activity logs from a mission in Iraq was kept hidden from top officials for more than a year.
Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told a hastily convened news conference on Wednesday night that the logs in question were discovered by the research headquarters of the GSDF on March 27 last year, despite an earlier claim in the Diet by then-defense chief Tomomi Inada that they didn't exist.
On Monday this week, just two days ago, Onodera had told reporters that GSDF officers discovered the documents in January this year and that he was notified on March 31. In fact the GSDF research unit had confirmed the existence of the records a year earlier.