Ex-Air defense chief to testify at Diet over controversial essay Tues.+

TOKYO, Nov. 6 Kyodo - Ruling and opposition lawmakers agreed Thursday to summon former Air self-Defense Force chief Gen. Toshio Tamogami to appear before an upper house panel Tuesday as an unsworn witness over his controversial essay on Japan's role in World War II that cost him the top ASDF post last week.

The governing Liberal Democratic Party had been against an opposition demand to
summon Tamogami to appear before the opposition-dominated House of Councillors
Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense on the grounds the situation has no
direct bearing on deliberations on a bill to continue Japan's antiterrorism
refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.
However, the LDP accommodated the demand after the main opposition Democratic
Party of Japan showed readiness to hold a vote on the bill if Tamogami appears
before the panel as a witness, committee members said.

The DPJ-led opposition camp had resisted even voting on the bill to
extend beyond the Jan. 15 expiration the temporary law authorizing the refueling
mission to help the U.S.-led crackdown on vessels linked to terrorism in and near
Afghanistan.
The committee could hold a vote on the bill after deliberations with Prime
Minister Taro Aso's attendance as early as Nov. 13, the members said.
The bill already cleared the LDP-dominated House of Representatives, or the
powerful lower chamber, last month, and now stands a chance of being voted down
by the upper house, a move that would pave the way for the ruling camp to hold
a second vote in the lower house for its enactment by overriding an upper
chamber rejection.
The upper house panel unanimously agreed to summon Tamogami amid growing
suspicion he may have led an organized submission in the ASDF of essays to a
competition effectively organized by a friend of his.
Tamogami retired from the Defense Ministry on Monday after he was removed from
the post of the ASDF's chief of staff on Friday for expressing views contrary
to what the government officially holds.
Tamogami denied the Japanese military invaded Asian countries before and during
World War II -- in defiance of the official position -- in an essay that won
him the top prize of 3 million yen in a competition sponsored by real estate
developer Apa Group.
Meanwhile, Vice Defense Minister Kohei Masuda revealed Thursday that a total of
78 ASDF personnel submitted essays for the competition.
The finding fueled a suspicion that many ASDF personnel wrote essays in a move
orchestrated by Tamogami, as 62 of the 78 belong to an ASDF unit in Ishikawa
Prefecture where Tamogami used to serve as commander. Apa Group is headed by a
friend of Tamogami and has a major office in the prefecture.
Masuda, the top bureaucrat in the Defense Ministry, said at a press conference
that the ministry's Air Staff Office had told various ASDF units nationwide in
May that writing an essay for the competition would help in their training.
Then the leadership of Air Wing 6 at the ASDF Komatsu Base in the prefecture
had officers of the unit write essays for the competition, Masuda said.
Apa Group said 235 people submitted essays for the contest and that one-third
were ASDF personnel.
Apa Group has one of its head offices in the prefectural capital Kanazawa and
Tamogami said earlier he became associated with Apa Group head by Toshio Motoya
when he was the chief of the air wing from 1998 to 1999.
But Masuda refrained from commenting on why so many ASDF officers from the unit
wrote essays for the competition.
According to ministry officials, the 78 included three colonels, three
lieutenant colonels, four majors and many other lower-ranking officers.
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told a session Thursday of the House of
Councillors Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense that he hopes Tamogami
will voluntarily return his retirement allowance to the public coffers.