China News Service, August 25. According to Kyodo News Agency, the wife of former Japanese Minister Katsuyuki Kawai was elected as a senator for the first time in the Japanese Senate elections held in the summer of 2019, but the couple were subsequently accused of violating the Public Office Election Law ". On the 25th local time, in the first public trial on election bribery, the couple denied the content of the prosecution and both claimed not guilty.
According to reports, Kazuyuki Kawai’s wife was accused of sending cash to 100 people including local congressmen before and after the announcement of the Senate election. The purpose of sending cash is the biggest issue. Mr. and Mrs. Kawai generally admitted that they had provided cash, but stated that it was “not provided for the purpose of voting and canvassing” and denied the content of the lawsuit.
According to reports, the prosecutor said in the opening statement that Kazuyuki Kawai “recklessly entrusted the local congressmen to assist in the election campaign” without asking the other party to issue invoices. The prosecutor also pointed out that “Kawai Kazuyuki has compiled a list of cash provision and kept it in his computer”. Allegedly, the list was later deleted.
In this case, none of the local congressmen were prosecuted. Kazuyuki Kawai believed that the prosecution was suspected of having conducted illegal transactions without criminal sanctions in order to obtain a favorable confession, and planned to request the suspension of the public trial to dismiss the public prosecution.