The Ministry of Defense on Feb. 7 released daily reports prepared on July 11 and 12, 2016 by the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) unit taking part in U.N. peacekeeping operations (PKO) in South Sudan, on which the term "combat" appears several times -- revealing the gap between the reports and explanations given by the government on the situation in the African country.
The GSDF unit used the expression "combat" multiple times in the daily reports and GSDF troops in Japan that received the reports had said, "A fierce combat has been confirmed." The daily reports show the situation in which the GSDF unit in South Sudan was assuming the possible suspension of its U.N.-backed peacekeeping activities. But at news conferences and elsewhere, government officials at that time toned down the term by using the expression "multiple shooting cases," raising questions about whether the government was accurately reflecting the actual situation in the area.
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