"Cash to 5 members" memo Special Investigation Department voluntarily listens to IR corruption case on January 4 at 12:07
A former counselor of a bribery Chinese company distributed cash to five members of the Diet other than Akimoto in a corruption case involving a member of the House of Representatives Akimoto arrested over the business of an IR and integrated resort facility. With notes left, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Investigation Division confirmed that the situation was heard from five members of the Diet voluntarily in order to confirm the facts. In response to NHK's interview, four out of five people denied funding from Chinese companies and one said they were investigating facts.
Tsuji Akimoto, 48, a member of the lower house of the Diet, who was the deputy minister of the Cabinet Office in charge of IR and other matters, said in September 2017, three years ago, from a "500 dot com" side of a Chinese company aiming to enter IR. There is a suspicion of bribery, such as receiving a bribe of 3 million yen in a month.
According to officials, a 3 million yen bribe was believed to have been passed in the name of a judge in the lower house election the following month, but a former Chinese company adviser distributed cash to five other lower members at the same time. He left a memo to tell him that he had made a statement, such as "I funded 1 million yen to 5 people."
These five were former Minister of Defense, Takeshi Iwaya of the LDP, Secretary of Justice, Masahisa Miyazaki of the LDP, Hiroyuki Nakamura of the LDP, Toshimi Nakamura of the LDP, Toshimi Funabashi of the LDP, and former Minister of Post and Privatization for Japan's Restoration. During the year-end and New Year, five members of the association, Mr. Mikio Shimo, interviewed the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Office to confirm the facts.
Of the five members, four excluding Iwaya are locals in Hokkaido and Okinawa, where Chinese companies aimed to enter the IR, and three members, Iwaya, Shimoji and Nakamura, are executives of the League of Representatives who promote IR. I was serving.
According to the Political Funds Balance Report, the LDP branch, represented by Representative Nakamura, was asked by a tourism company in Sapporo to seek IR participation in Rusutsu-mura, Hokkaido with Chinese companies, September 26 and October 2017. It was stated that on 2nd, each received a donation of 2 million yen, and on October 5 of the same year, Representative Nakamura's branch had contributed 1 million yen to the representative Liberal Democratic Party branch.
On the other hand, four out of five people have denied funding from Chinese companies in response to NHK's interview, and Iwaya held a press conference on April 4, saying, "We received money from Chinese companies. I don't know the fact: the donation of one million yen was offered by a fellow lawmaker who offered to thank me for speaking at a local political funding party. "
In addition, Representative Shimoji says, "It is more than two years ago, so we are investigating the facts."
It seems that the Special Investigation Department is carefully examining the flow of funds left in the notes of Chinese companies.