Political Use of Self-defense Force

Article 66 of Constitution of Japan determines that Prime Minister and other Ministers of State must be civilians. Along with the principle of civilian control, Self-defense Force Act requires the members of the organization to be politically neutral. That is why the politicians also have to refrain from taking advantage of Self-defense Force politically. Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara made a speech on Sunday that the voting for Liberal Democratic Party would reward the members of SDF and their families. He took his words back immediately after criticisms were raised. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has shown no sign of replacing Kihara. 

In the by-election campaign for an LDP candidate in Nagasaki 4th district of House of Representatives, Kihara made that speech to the public in Sasebo city, where a major base of Marine Self-defense Force and United States Force are located. “Sasebo is the city where the members of Self-defense Force and their families live with pride,” Kihara said in his speech to support LDP candidate Yozo Kaneko. Raising Kishida administration’s plan to expand defense budget as much as ¥43 trillion, Kihara said he did not want someone with the opposition party, which was opposing the plan, to take the seat.

 

Article 61 of Self-defense Force Act obligates every SDF member not to be involved in such political activities as collecting donations, except voting in elections, not to run for elections for public office or not to be a member of political party. Once a minister of defense takes advantage of his/her subordinative organization for a political purpose, the organization may no longer be politically neutral. Kihara’s speech could be recognized as something trying to let SDF leaning on LDP.

 

Kihara retracted his speech on Monday and told that he would stay as the minister on Tuesday. “There was no intention to take advantage of SDF politically,” said Kihara. But it is hard to imagine that a speech of a minister in an election campaign does not have any political purpose. For a defense minister to appeal the achievement of Kishida administration in defense policy may cause SDF work closer to LDP. Those are probably the reasons of criticisms.

 

While there is another argument that political speech for election should not be restricted, the defense minister has to be careful about referring to SDF. In 2017, Minister of Defense Tomomi Inada asked vote for LDP “as Ministry of Defense, Self-defense Force, Minister of Defense and Liberal Democratic Party” in the election campaign of an LDP candidate for Tokyo Metropolitan Governor. She later withdrew her speech.

 

The response of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was ambiguous. “Kihara hopes to pull his speech back, if it causes misunderstanding even after he explains his intention to thank and pay respect to the SDF members and their families,” said Kishida to the reporters on Monday. As the supreme commander of SDF, Kishida has to explain at least about what the political use of SDF means.

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