PM Hatoyama denies his involvement in illegal donation scandal

Japan Press Weekly

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

PM Hatoyama denies his involvement in illegal donation scandal

Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio on December 21 submitted to prosecutors a report denying his involvement in the alleged illegal political donations scandal, arguing that he knew nothing about the falsification of documents related to donations because he entrusted everything to his former secretary.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office will drop the case against Hatoyama.

This is far from convincing to the general public, currently facing economic hardships. The fact that prosecutors closed the case without revealing the truth will also be called into question.

Allegedly, the ex-secretary fabricated Hatoyama’s political funds reports over the past five years to make it appear that his fund management body received about 350 million yen in political donations from individuals, including deceased and those who did not make any donations, as well as sales of fundraising party tickets.

Reportedly, part of Hatoyama’s personal assets and about 900 million yen (15 million yen a month) his mother gave him for five years was used as the source of the money in question.

When the fact that Hatoyama had received 900 million yen from his mother came to light, he said, “I didn’t know what was going on behind my back” as if it were someone else’s problem.

He said he will make a modification of about 500 million yen as gift taxes after his former secretary is given a criminal penalty. Some, however, point out that he had purposely tried to evade the taxes. Tax evasion, in fact, is a serious crime.

“I have entrusted everything to my secretary,” he said. But when the secretary told Hatomaya that his office was running out of money, he permitted cash withdrawals from his own asset management account. This is what Hatoyama himself confessed to in the Diet.

Hatoyama should give the public convincing explanations why his secretary had to fabricate the political funds reports and used deceased persons’ names, as well as what the 900 million yen was actually used for.

- Akahata, December 22, 2009