Procurement Risk:

Low

Score:

68/100

Government Policy

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Q57 75/100

Does the country have legislation covering defence and security procurement with clauses specific to corruption risks, and are any items exempt from these laws?

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Legal framework Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. Procurement is administered by the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) (防衛装備庁), established on…
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Corruption risks Score: 50 / 100
The Antimonopoly Law and the Act on Elimination and Prevention of Involvement in Bid Rigging, etc. and Punishments for Acts by Employees that Harm…
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Effectiveness Score: 100 / 100
There is evidence that the legislation has been thoroughly implemented and followed for all defence procurement during the years covered by this research. According…
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Q58 75/100

Is the defence procurement cycle process, from assessment of needs, through contract implementation and sign-off, all the way to asset disposal, disclosed to the public?

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Formal procedures Score: 50 / 100
The assessment of needs, building on the National Security Strategy for overarching principles, National Defence Program Guidelines for the longer term, Mid-Term Defence Programs…
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Transparency Score: 100 / 100
The public has access to documents that outline Japan’s defence strategy and the weapons and equipment it needs to implement it (see Q11B). When…
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Implementation Score: 75 / 100
The Mid-Term Defence Program Guidelines (MTDP) are a key link in converting defence strategy into the weapons and equipment that are needed to implement…
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Q59 83/100

Are defence procurement oversight mechanisms in place and are these oversight mechanisms active and transparent?

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Independence Score: 100 / 100
Japan’s procurement oversight institutions have a legally and organisationally founded independent status, and they follow formalised processes in their work. This protects them from…
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Effectiveness Score: 50 / 100
IGO’s mandate includes annual inspections that assess the efforts by defence institutions to prevent collusion. Its report of the annual inspection in 2018 suggested…
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Transparency Score: 100 / 100
IGO’s activity is evident in its annual reports, which can be downloaded from its website. The report of the 2018 regular inspection of bidding…
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Q60 100/100

Are potential defence purchases made public?

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Policies Score: 100 / 100
The Government publishes comprehensive forward planning for potential purchases which extends 10-15 years. This is done through the production of several documents. One is…
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Notice of planned purchases Score: 100 / 100
The Mid-Term Defense Program (MTDP) gives an overview of military procurement plans for the next five years. [1] It is publicly available on the…
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Q61 100/100

Are actual defence purchases made public?

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Comprehensiveness Score: 100 / 100
Procurement contracts that have been awarded by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) are announced on the website of the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency…
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Accessible data Score: 100 / 100
Procurement contracts that have been awarded by the Ministry of Defence are announced on the homepages of ATLA. This data is provided in excel…
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Capability Gap and Requirements Definition

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Q62 88/100

What procedures and standards are companies required to have – such as compliance programmes and business conduct programmes – in order to be able to bid for work for the Ministry of Defence or armed forces?

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Formal policies Score: 75 / 100
Businesses that wish to participate in open competition bidding for contracts with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) must first apply to the Ministry for…
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Consistent implementation Score: 100 / 100
There is evidence that the content of the Guidance on Bidding and Contract is consistently implemented. The Guidance is posted on Acquisition, Technology &…
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Q63 75/100

Are procurement requirements derived from a national defence and security strategy, and are procurement decisions well-audited? Are defence purchases based on clearly identified and quantified requirements?

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Procurement requirements Score: 100 / 100
Japanese defence policy builds on its national security strategy document, which the Government adopted in 2013. [1] National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) advise on…
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Scrutiny Score: 50 / 100
The Diet conducts some scrutiny of defence procurement when it audits the annual accounts. Each House of the Diet audits the settlement of accounts…
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Purchases Score: 75 / 100
In the NDPG for FY 2019 –, the types of defence assets that Japan should procure are described, and an annex table on the…
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Tender Solicitation, Assessment and Contract Award

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Q64 50/100

Is defence procurement generally conducted as open competition or is there a significant element of single-sourcing (that is, without competition)?

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Open competition Score: 25 / 100
Aggregate information on defence procurement contract types is not available from Japan. The Japan assessment in TI’s Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index 2015 cited a…
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Scrutiny of single/restricted competition procedures Score: 75 / 100
Japanese contracts that give rise to public spending build on the Public Accounting Act. Article 29-3 item 1 of this act specifies that such…
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Q65 58/100

Are tender boards subject to regulations and codes of conduct and are their decisions subject to independent audit to ensure due process and fairness?

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Conflicts of interest Score: 75 / 100
Different types of defence equipment are selected through different procedures. The Ministry of Finance found that the procedures for selecting major types of equipment…
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Audit Trail Score: NEI / 100
Information on which officials were involved in selecting suppliers, designing tender specifications and awarding contracts is not disclosed to the public. This information is…
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Transparency Score: 50 / 100
As pointed out in a report by the Ministry of Finance, procedures for the selection of aircraft by the Ministry of Defence [1] require…
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Scrutiny Score: 50 / 100
A circular on procuring aircraft provides some procedures for external verification of tender specifications, whereas two circulars on procurement by the MSDF provide none.…
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Q66 100/100

Does the country have legislation in place to discourage and punish collusion between bidders for defence and security contracts?

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Legal framework Score: 100 / 100
Japan has legislation that prohibits collusion between bidders as well as between an official and a bidder. [1] This legislation applies to the defence…
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Sanctions Score: 100 / 100
According to the “Guidance on Tender and Contract”, companies that have obstructed fair trade are to lose their status as qualified bidders for a…
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Enforcement Score: 100 / 100
Only one case of suspected collusive bidding, for the tenders that ATLA had called for, was found in the mainstream newspapers Asahi Shimbun [1]…
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Training Score: 100 / 100
The Administrative Vice-Minister of Defence issued a circular on October 1, 2015, with instructions that all personnel who work with procurement are to receive…
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Contract Delivery and In-Service Support

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Q67 56/100

Are there mechanisms and procedures that ensure that contractors meet their obligations on reporting and delivery?

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Reporting policies & procedures Score: 100 / 100
Formal policies and procedures for monitoring and assessing a supplier’s service and delivery obligations are described in the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA)’s…
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Transparency Score: 75 / 100
Contracts are available on the websites of ATLA (for central procurement) [1] and of procuring institutions under the Regional Defence Bureaus (for regional procurement).…
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Monitoring Score: 50 / 100
“An outline of central procurement” contains details about ATLA’s and the Regional Defence Bureaus’ monitoring of the engineering work and cost prices of defence…
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Enforcement Score: 0 / 100
The “Guidance on Bidding and Contract” has clear rules for how to handle breaches of contract. In some cases, the MOD may pay a…
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Q68 NEI/100

Are there mechanisms in place to allow companies to complain about perceived malpractice in procurement, and are companies protected from discrimination when they use these mechanisms?

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Complaints mechanisms Score: 100 / 100
A few descriptions were found of formal complaints mechanisms in a search of open sources. The Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s whistleblower apparatus is meant…
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Effectiveness and Accessibility Score: NEI / 100
No price is given in the “Guidance on bidding and contracts” for having ATLA handle complaints, although the guidance does give the size of…
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Retaliation Score: NEI / 100
The websites of the Japanese MOD, [1] ATLA, [2] all nine Regional Defence Bureaus [3] and the mainstream national newspapers Asahi Shimbun, [4] Nikkei…
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Q69 100/100

What sanctions are used to punish the corrupt activities of a supplier?

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Sanctions Score: 100 / 100
Key pieces of Japanese legislation make bribery and corruption by private companies clearly illegal. The Penal Code prohibits bribery of Japanese officials. In addition,…
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Undue influence Score: 100 / 100
One case of suspected collusive bidding, for the tenders that ATLA had called for was found in a search of the mainstream newspapers Asahi…
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Application of sanctions Score: 100 / 100
Bribery of a Japanese public official can be punished with exclusion and prosecution. Under the Penal Code, individuals can get a penalty of up…
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Offset Contracts

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Q70 50/100

When negotiating offset contracts, does the government specifically address corruption risk by imposing anti-corruption due diligence on contractors and third parties?

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Legal framework Score: 50 / 100
Japan became a party to the WTO’s Agreement on Government Procurement on January 1, 1996. [1] The use of offsets is explicitly prohibited in…
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Due diligence Score: 50 / 100
There is a lack of transparency about defence procurement contracts with foreign governments and/or companies that include Japanese domestic production (see Q71B). A search…
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Q71 50/100

How does the government monitor offset contracts?

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Policies & procedures Score: 50 / 100
The monitoring of production by a Japanese subcontractor for defence equipment that Japan procures from a foreign government and/or company is only moderately transparent…
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Transparency Score: 25 / 100
When the Government of Japan concludes a large defence procurement contract with a foreign government and/or company that includes Japanese domestic production, it will…
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Monitoring Score: 50 / 100
In the general case, an official from ATLA or a Regional Defence Bureau is to make a completion inspection when a defence product is…
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Enforcement Score: 75 / 100
In the case of the production of F-35A components, some of the work done by Japanese subcontractors was insufficient. Some of their components were…
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Q72 25/100

What level of competition are offset contracts subject to?

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Score: 25 / 100
The Japanese subcontractor contracts are all single source contracts. Such contracts contradict the general principle that public procurement should be determined through competitive bidding,…
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Agents / Brokers

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Q73 75/100

How strongly does the government control the company’s use of agents and intermediaries in the procurement cycle?

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Policies Score: 50 / 100
General imports of defence equipment from foreign (often US) manufacturers, which is distinct from imports through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) managed by the US…
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Enforcement Score: 100 / 100
The Ministry of Defence introduced several measures in 2008 to prevent corruption by trading houses that act as agents when the Ministry imports defence…
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Financing Package

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Q74 0/100

Are the principal aspects of the financing package surrounding major arms deals, (such as payment timelines, interest rates, commercial loans or export credit agreements) made publicly available prior to the signing of contracts?

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Score: 0 / 100
Key information on public procurement is published in monthly summaries of contracts published on the websites of the procuring institutions within the Ministry of…
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Seller Influence

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Q75 NS/100

How common is it for defence acquisition decisions to be based on political influence by selling nations?

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Prevalence: selling nations Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. Imports of defence equipment through FMS managed by the US Government made up about…
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Justification Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. The amount of information given by the Government of Japan on the military needs…
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Prevalence: domestic pressures Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. No reports of domestic political pressures resulting in acquisition of defence equipment contrary to…
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