Toshio Tamogami

Toshio Tamogami
February, 2009
Born	July 22, 1948 Kōriyama, Fukushima Prefecture
Allegiance	Japan
Service/branch	Japan Air Self-Defense Force
Years of service	1971-2008
Rank	General

General Toshio Tamogami (田母神 俊雄, Tamogami Toshio^?, born July 22, 1948) is a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force career military officer. He served as the Chief of Staff of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force from March 2007 until he was fired from the position in October 2008 for publicly justifying Japan's wartime expansion throughout Asia. Tamogami turned to politics in 2014 as a candidate for governor of Tokyo and for the House of Representatives; he was arrested in April 2016 for alleged violations of campaign finance laws (illegal payments to supporters) in relation to his gubernatorial campaign.

Tamogami graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1971 with a major in electrical engineering. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1986, colonel in 1990, and major general in 1996. He was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed Head of the Joint Staff College on December 2, 2002, and appointed to Commander in Chief of the Air Defense Command on August 30, 2004. He was promoted to general and appointed Chief of Staff of the Air Self-Defense Force on March 28, 2007.

A member of the openly revisionist organization Nippon Kaigi, Tamogami gained attention in the press for a number of outspoken remarks in the latter days of his career. On the occasion of an unsuccessful civil case brought against the government for sending troops to Iraq, he remarked that he felt some of the activities of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force were against Japan's peace constitution, causing the litigants to claim a moral victory. On 14 July 2004, when questioned further about this supposed 'unconstitutionality' of the Air Self-Defense Force, he said that his opinion should not distress its members since (quoting the catch phrase of Yoshio Kojima, a popular comedian), "What does that matter?"

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