WASHINGTON — One of Japan’s largest defense contractors Mitsubishi Electric Corp. of Tokyo, told shareholders Feb. 13 that it is free to resume bidding on military contracts now that it has refunded the government 60 billion yen ($642 million) that it overcharged the Ministry of Defense for hardware and services delivered over the past decade.

Mitsubishi admitted in early 2012 to overcharging the Ministry of Defense as well as the Cabinet Office Satellite Intelligence Center and the civilian Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a number of unspecified military and civilian contracts. Mitsubishi was suspended from bidding on certain government contracts as a result.

JAXA, the Cabinet Office Satellite Intelligence Center and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology lifted Mitsubishi’s suspension in mid-January after it repaid a total of 15 billion yen it had overcharged those agencies.

“Mitsubishi Electric is committed to strengthening its corporate ethics and compliance systems to prevent any recurrence and to restore public trust,” the company said in a Feb. 13 press release.

Brian Berger is editor in chief of SpaceNews.com and the SpaceNews magazine. He joined SpaceNews.com in 1998, spending his first decade with the publication covering NASA. He was named senior staff writer in 2004, a position he held...