Two recent scandals reflect the Japanese weakness for golf. In one, former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya allegedly provided favors to a Japanese trading company involved in defense contracts, after taking more than 100 one-day golf trips at the invitation of the company. In November, Moriya was arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of taking bribes, along with his wife, who accompanied him on the golf courses.
The other affair involves seven members of the Sagamihara city assembly in Kanagawa Prefecture and the director of the city's urban construction bureau, who played golf in November at the U.S. military golf course at Camp Zama, where the U.S. Army's 1st Corps recently opened its forward deployment command center over Japanese public protests.
Citizens' groups criticized the conduct of the Sagamihara assembly members and official as tantamount to accepting the permanent U.S. military presence despite mounting national opposition.