Falsified list of donors exposes questionable donations to DPJ leader

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Falsified list of donors exposes questionable donations to DPJ leader

Democratic Party President Hatoyama Yukio's list of donors includes the names of deceased as well as other people who never made such donations. This revelation is having repercussions throughout society.

Asked about the mysterious list of donors at a news conference on June 30, Hatoyama explained that the fictitious donors' names were used to enter incomes from his pocket money. He said, "I used to ask my accountant to withdraw cash from my personal bank account and put it in the fund managing organization's account whenever it was necessary to do so."

During the 1998-2007 period, Hatoyama "donated" 97 million yen to his fund managing organization. He did not directly enter the money as donations.

His organization in its political funds report in 2007 stated that it owes Hatoyama 80 million yen, however, did not report that the money was a loan from Hatoyama's personal assets.

Denying his involvement in the falsified entries in the political funds report, Hatoyama said, "This has been caused by wrong judgments by my secretary in charge of clerical work."

Didn't he realize that his secretary had inexplicably taken out 22 million yen over four years from his account, although the fictitious donations were from Hatotama's own assets?

"We haven't given any money (to Hatoyama), but 3.6 million yen was reported to have been donated by us," said a woman in Tokyo. She recalled that the only contact she had with Hatoyama's office was her phone call to Hatoyama's support group.

A teacher of Hatoyama's elementary school said, "I support Hatoyama but I have never been asked for political donations for him." Hatoyama's fund managing organization reported that the teacher had donated 120,000 yen.

- Akahata, July 2, 2009