LDP Dietmember arrested for bribery

The Tokyo Prosecutors Office on March 7 arrested Lower House member Sakai Takanori on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Law. Soon after his arrest, the Liberal Democratic Party expelled him from the party.

Prosecutors said that the 55-year-old suspect has hidden 120 million yen he received from Nippon Manpower Co., a job placement company, by falsifying his political fund report.

For five years from 1997 when Sakai was former Labor Ministry's parliamentary vice-minister, he had reportedly accepted secret donations from several personnel-service businesses. During this period, labor laws were revised in favor of the job placement industry.

Sakai reportedly asked Nippon Manpower for one million yen per month as running expenses of his political office and for a luxury car costing 8-million yen.

On the previous day after the parliament approved prosecutors' request to arrest Sakai, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo commented on the allegation and said that the LDP has a dyed-in-the-wool corrupt nature.

Shii called for a full accounting of the charges, demanding that Sakai resign from his parliamentary seat and that the Diet summon him to appear before the Diet as a sworn witness as well as chairman of Nippon Manpower Ono Ken as witness.

He said, "The root cause of this scandal is the allowance of corporate donations. This structure that routinely accepts money from companies should be the subject of change. We can no longer postpone a ban on political contributions from at least government contractors." (end)