Government funding for Northern Islands projects sored when Suzuki Muneo was deputy chief cabinet secretary

In 1998, the Japanese government heavily funded a Foreign Ministry-affiliated body for humanitarian and technical assistance to Russia and the Russian-held "Four Northern Islands" in 1998. The funding increased 15 times from that of the previous year. That was immediately after Suzuki Muneo was appointed deputy chief cabinet secretary under Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo.

The wholly Japanese government-funded body called the "Assistance Committee" was established in 1993 based on an agreement between Japan and 12 former Soviet republics, including Russia.

The government appropriated 12.5 billion yen for the first year and 600-800 million yen for subsequent years up to 1997. In 1998, the amount jumped to 12 billion yen and again decreased to 5.5 billion yen in 1999, the year Suzuki left the office of the deputy chief cabinet secretary.

Recent revelations show that Suzuki in 1999 allegedly interfered with the bid for the construction of the so-called "Muneo House" on the Russian-held Kunashiri island.

The government has provided a total of 59.1 billion yen to the Assistance Committee. Only 31.7 billion yen has been used up to fiscal 2000 and 27.4 billion yen is kept by the committee. And yet 1.1 billion yen is appropriated in the fiscal 2002 budget.

Also some questionable expenditures are being pointed out. For example, the consumption tax payment, which was unnecessary, was booked down as part of the project cost, and travel expenses of Foreign Ministry officials, who were not committee staff members, were funded by the committee.

It has also been discovered that the Liberal Democratic Party and Suzuki have received donations from companies which won bids for the committee's projects.

Pointing out that a huge amount of pooled money is apparently the hotbed of the committee's misappropriations, Akahata on March 4 called for an investigation into this question. (end)