Siemens Incident

This was a major scandal in the Imperial Japanese Navy related to the import of warships and other weapons, which was exposed in a major newspaper report by foreign wires during the opening of the 31st Imperial Diet in January 1914 (Taisho 3), and was a structural corruption scandal comparable in both its course and nature to the Lockheed Scandal of the Showa Period.In addition to the bribery by the German arms company Siemens, which was the trigger for the scandal to come to light, it was also uncovered that large amounts of bribery had also been paid by the British company Vickers through the agent Mitsui & Co., during the construction of the Kongo, known as the last imported battleship, and so it is also known as the Kongo Scandal or the Vickers Scandal.

In line with the Imperial Defense Policy formulated after the Russo-Japanese War, a new large-scale expansion of the Japanese Navy was started, and the huge financial burden of this expansion became a major political issue. The Cabinet of Admiral Yamamoto Gonbei, who succeeded the third Katsura Taro Cabinet, gained the support of the Seiyukai Party and was trying to compromise with the business world to resolve the pending issues, but just as this was happening, the Siemens Scandal occurred. The three opposition parties, including the Rikken Doshikai Party led by Shimada Saburo, Ozaki Yukio, and Inukai Tsuyoshi, used this Navy bribery scandal as a convenient way to attack the government, and the following February, a crowd at a National Conference to Impeach the Cabinet was held in Hibiya, surrounding the Diet, and the military was called in, and a movement to denounce the Yamamoto Cabinet flared up both inside and outside the Diet. In March of the same year, the budget, including the large-scale expansion of the Navy, was not passed, and the Yamamoto Cabinet was forced to resign en masse.

Looking at the course of the bribery case, first the bribery of Navy Captain Hirotake Sawazaki and others was uncovered, and then it was revealed that in connection with the construction of the battleship Kongo (priced at about 24 million yen), import agent Mitsui & Co. had given one third of the commission it received from the orderer, Vickers, about 400,000 yen, to Vice Admiral Yawara Matsumoto, commander-in-chief of the Kure Naval District and then chief of the Navy's Naval Shipbuilding Headquarters. At the time of the order in 1910 (Meiji 43), Mitsui & Co. had manipulated the order to be placed by a high-ranking naval official through technical advisor and former shipbuilding inspector Tsurutaro Matsuo. Vice Admiral Matsumoto, who was expected to become the next Navy Minister, was said to have accepted the bribery in preparation for future political funds, exposing one aspect of the collusion between the zaibatsu and the government and military, which had become a rumor amid the expansion of the military.

The military officers who were accused of bribery were each dismissed, had their ranks relinquished, and were sentenced to three years or less in prison and a fine by the High Military Court Martial, while the Mitsui & Co. personnel, including Matsuo, Iwahara Kenzo, and Yamamoto Jotaro, who were charged with bribery, were given suspended prison sentences by the Tokyo Court of Appeals. At the trial, against the prosecutor Obara Naoshi who pursued the bribery charges, Mitsui's side, with top lawyers including Egi Makoto and Hanai Takuzo, argued that the essence of the case lay in the cleanup of the navy baileys, and that the Mitsui & Co. personnel were innocent. Later, the then Prosecutor General Hiranuma Kiichiro testified that he had kept secret the fact that some of the bribe money had been passed on to Navy Minister Saito Makoto.

[Hiroshi Matsumoto]

"Siemens Incident: Records and Materials" edited by Mori Zenkichi (1976, Gendaishi Publishing Co., Ltd.) " "Kongo Incident (1) (2) (3)" edited and published by Senshu University Imamura Law Laboratory (1977-78)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1914年（大正3）1月、第31帝国議会開会中、外電による大々的な新聞報道で暴露された、軍艦など兵器輸入にかかわる旧日本帝国海軍の大疑獄で、事件の経過・性格ともに昭和のロッキード事件に比される構造汚職事件。事件発覚の端緒になったドイツの兵器会社ジーメンス社の贈賄(ぞうわい)のほか、最後の輸入戦艦として知られる「金剛(こんごう)」の建造に際し、代理店三井物産を介してイギリスのビッカース社からも多額の贈賄がなされていたことが摘発されたため、「金剛」事件、ビッカース事件ともいわれる。

　日露戦争後策定された帝国国防方針に沿って、日本海軍の新たな大拡張が開始され、その巨額な財政負担は政治上の重要問題になっていた。第三次桂(かつら)太郎内閣を継いだ海軍大将山本権兵衛(ごんべえ)内閣は、政友会の支持を得、財界と妥協し、懸案の解決を計ろうとしていたが、その矢先にシーメンス事件が発生した。島田三郎、尾崎行雄(ゆきお)、犬養毅(いぬかいつよし)らに率いられた立憲同志会ら野党三派はこの海軍収賄事件をかっこうの政府攻撃材料とし、翌2月日比谷(ひびや)で催された内閣弾劾国民大会の群集が議会を包囲し、軍隊が出動するなど、議院の内外で山本内閣糾弾の運動が燃え上がった。同年3月海軍大拡張費を含む予算が不成立となり、山本内閣は総辞職へ追い込まれた。

　贈収賄事件の経過をみると、当初沢崎寛猛海軍大佐らの収賄が摘発され、ついで戦艦「金剛」の建造（代金約2400万円）にかかわって、輸入代理店三井物産が発注先のビッカース社から得たコミッションの3分の1、約40万円を当時海軍艦政本部長であった呉鎮守府(くれちんじゅふ)司令長官松本和(やわら)中将へ渡していたことが明らかにされた。三井物産は1910年（明治43）の発注時に、技術顧問の元造船総監松尾鶴太郎を通じて海軍高官に発注工作をしていた。次期海軍大臣に目されていた松本中将の収賄は将来の政治資金に備えたものといわれ、軍備拡張の下で噂(うわさ)になってきた財閥と政府・軍部との癒着結合の一端が白日の下にさらされた。

　収賄罪に問われた軍人たちは、高等軍法会議でそれぞれ免官位記返上勲等功級褫奪(ちだつ)、3年以下の懲役ならびに追徴金の判決を受け、贈賄罪の松尾、岩原謙三、山本条太郎ら三井物産関係者たちは、東京控訴院で執行猶予付きの懲役刑が確定した。裁判では贈賄を追及する小原直(おばらなおし)検事に対し、三井側は江木衷(えぎまこと)・花井卓蔵(たくぞう)ら一流の弁護士をそろえ、事件の本質が海軍廓清(かくせい)にあるとし、三井物産関係者の無罪を主張した。のちに、当時の検事総長平沼騏一郎(ひらぬまきいちろう)は、収賄金の一部が斎藤実(まこと)海軍大臣まで渡っていた事実を秘密にしておいたと証言している。

［松元　宏］

『盛善吉編著『シーメンス事件　記録と資料』（1976・現代史出版会）』▽『専修大学今村法律研究室編・刊『金剛事件（1）（2）（3）』（1977～78）』

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