scandal

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Faulty condominium seller admits his contact with Abe's secretary

President Ojima Susumu of Huser Ltd., which has sold apartments in buildings with safety problems, refused to answer most of the questions asked of him during his sworn testimony at a House of Representatives committee meeting on January 17. But he admitted to meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo's secretary and that he participated in a study group of apartment housing developers and dealers together with Ito Kosuke, a Liberal Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives and a former National Land Agency director general.

This threw into sharp relief the cozy relationship between Ojima, whose responsibility for selling apartment units with insufficient quake-resistant strength is at issue, and the LDP's mainstream "Mori Faction" led by former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro.

During the testimony, Democratic Party representative Mabuchi Sumio revealed that Ojima had stated:"I'm a member of 'Anshin-kai,' Abe Shinzo's group. Its chair introduced me to one of Abe's secretaries, Iizuka Hiroshi. Iizuka made contact with an official of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry who later became the administrative vice minister. Later, Abe stated that the cabinet will carefully deal with the matter."

Ojima stated this on November 20 at a meeting with residents of an apartment building with a substandard earthquake-proof structure.

Ojima stated that he and his firm purchased party tickets for Ito's fundraiser and donated a large amount of money to Ito's fund management body, but that he had no specific aim in approaching Ito, who became the minister in November 1996.

Japanese Communist Party representative Kokuta Keiji asked Ojima if he had taken part in a special study group with Ito as a key person. Ojima revealed that the group was named "Housing Policy Study Group."

Kokuta pointed out that a member at a study group meeting handed Ito about 3 million yen which had been collected from member firms; donations and funding through party tickets to Ito and the Mori faction's "Seiwa-kai" have escalated in parallel with Ito's increasing influence on the government's housing and land policies.

"You've funded him with high expectations that Ito will use his influence on the government to allot public funds for your member firms," Kokuta pointed out.

Ojima revealed that he asked Arikawa Yasuo, Ota ward Assembly member from the Komei Party, to make contact with Komei's House of Councilors member Yamaguchi Natsuo, whose secretary arranged a meeting between Ojima and a transport ministry official.

Ojima also revealed the names of politicians whom he contacted: Ito Shintaro (Lower House, LDP), Anan Kazushige (former Upper House member), and Ishihara Shintaro (Tokyo Metropolitan governor).
-Akahata, January 18, 2006