Court rules transferring pre-flotation shares is 'bribery'

A district court has ruled the selling of pre-flotation shares to politicians to be illegal.

On March 4, at the end of the 15-year-old trial of Ezoe Hiromasa, the former Recruit Co. chairman who had been accused of bribing politicians, was sentenced to three years in prison with five years suspension.

The court ruled that Ezoe had sold pre-flotation shares of a Recruit subsidiary at a very low price to politicians and bureaucrats knowing that they were certain to rise in value after going public, and that he did so in order to get those beneficiaries to use their influence to help Recruit's job information magazine survive.

Those who took Ezoe's bribe money have also been found guilty. They include former Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujinami Takao, former Komei Party House of Representatives member Ikeda Katsuya, former administrative vice ministers for education and labor, and a former Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) chairman.

Ezoe insisted that selling pre-flotation shares was just an ordinary business or personal commercial transaction, which the court did not support.

Japanese Communist Party Committee on Money Politics and Corruption Chair Kijima Hideo published a statement on the same day saying that the district court ruling was proper.

He pointed out that many politicians who have not been prosecuted despite allegations that they have taken bribes are still using their influence, overtly or covertly, on politics. This shows how distorted Japan's politics is.

Referring to the fact that scandals involving "politics and money" continue to pop up, Kijima said, "This is because dirty relationships between politics and money are what Liberal Democratic Party politics is about."

This makes the prohibition of donations from companies and organizations all the more urgent. (end)