A small percentage of Ground Self-Defense Force members purchased toilet paper at their own expense due to budget constraints, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi revealed at a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting on Wednesday.
A survey conducted in the first half of fiscal 2020 showed that 1.4% of GSDF members were forced to do so.
"I was surprised," Kishi said, expressing his intention to eliminate the practice as soon as possible when Hiranao Honda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan asked him about the situation.
Honda also raised the issue in the Diet in November 2018, arguing that even though the defense budget had increased, the budget for SDF members' daily commodities may have been insufficient.
Then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "We will take immediate action," and Takeshi Iwaya, then defense minister, instructed the GSDF to improve the situation. However, two years later, the problem has not been resolved.
At the time, Iwaya instructed all units to secure necessary daily commodities and increased the budget for improving the living environment of GSDF members.
It has become customary for members to purchase at their own expense daily necessities such as toilet paper and garbage bags for use while on duty, and "some habits are hard to break," an SDF official said.
"Better living conditions will boost morale. There is a need to change the conventional perception," a senior SDF official said.
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