Photo/Illutration An MSDF submarine (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Submarines operated by the Maritime Defense Force are called “iron whales” and their crews are nicknamed “whale riders.”

When a sub is operating below the surface, even one small human error can spell the end for the entire crew. Since everyone is quite literally in the same boat, crew members are said to form tight, family-like bonds.

Perhaps this intimacy allowed an emerging scandal to remain a secret for a long time.

Tax authorities contend that Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. maintained slush funds to provide gifts for MSDF submarine crews. According to reports, MSDF officers sent their wish lists to KHI.

Included among the items were sets of Nintendo Switch for family gaming, home electronic appliances that MSDF officers intended to gift to their subordinates, and matching T-shirts for an entire submarine crew.

Were the gifts perhaps necessary to maintain those peudo-family relations? Still, I am appalled that neither the MSDF nor KHI questioned this practice.

KHI built up its slush funds by padding submarine repair bills and sending them to the Defense Ministry. This could mean taxpayers were unknowingly contributing to the scam.

The nation’s defense expenditures keep bloating. But if this has been helping MSDF members to line their pockets, nobody can rush to their defense.

As part of an MSDF promotional event, I once lay down on a triple-bunk bed in a submarine to check it out, and was shocked by how narrow it was. It felt very claustrophobic.

And given the suffocating oppressiveness of the working environment itself, not to mention long spells of communal living, it must take an especially strong sense of mission for anyone to become a submariner.

In fact, submarine crews account for less than 10 percent of the MSDF. They are the elites who have been chosen for special operations.

So, what came over them? Where is their pride as whale riders?

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 6 

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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