PM Hatoyama’s ‘dunno’ stance on his dubious funds cannot be allowed: JCP Koike

Japan Press Weekly

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

PM Hatoyama’s ‘dunno’ stance on his dubious funds cannot be allowed: JCP Koike

Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission Chair Koike Akira (House of Councilors) on a TV debate program aired on November 28 stated that Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio should tell the Diet the truth about the allegation that he has accepted 900 million yen in suspicious political donations.

Hatoyama has allegedly received 180 million yen a year in the form of “loans” from his mother, a large shareholder of Bridgestone Corporation, amounting to approximately 900 million yen over five years between 2004 and 2008.

Although the money is said to be “loans,” reportedly there is no repayment deadline and he has never paid interest on these loans.

Koike said, “The Political Fund Control Law limits the amount of money in political donations from individuals to 1.5 million yen a year. If the money Hatoyama has accepted is not actually a ‘loan,’ it may be possible that he has been violating the law.”

Regarding the source of the funds in question, Koike said, “In June the prime minister was saying ‘it is my own funds,’ and in November he said ‘I believe the funds are not from my mother,’ and now he says he didn’t know about it.”

Given that he has received the money as gifts from his mother without paying gift taxes, he will also be suspected of tax evasion.

Koike stated, “Hatoyama cannot get away with just saying, ‘I didn’t know.’ It is a matter of a huge amount of dubious money the prime minister has been involved in. He should fulfill his responsibility by stating the truth in the Diet.”
- Akahata, November 29, 2009