Japan Press Weekly

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2017 May 31 - June 6 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Ex- Tokyo vice governor to be accused of giving false testimony over Toyosu scandal

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s special committee (Article 100 committee) investigating the issue of the Tsukiji market relocation to Toyosu on May 31 approved a motion to formally accuse former voice governor Hamauzu Takeo of giving false testimony with the majority of support from the Japanese Communist and other political parties. The Liberal Democratic Party opposed the motion.

The special committee, which is set up under Article 100 of the Local Autonomy Act, has a strong investigative authority. It can lodge a criminal complaint against sworn witnesses if they give false testimony in the committee hearing.

Former Vice Governor Hamauzu reportedly played a key role in negotiations with Tokyo Gas on the purchase of the corporation’s gas plant site in Toyosu for a place to relocate the Tsukiji fish market. In this March, he was summoned to an Article 100 committee’s hearing to testify about the negotiations. In the hearing, he said under oath that after the basic agreement with the gas company to construct a new market at the Toyosu site in July 2001, he was not engaged in detailed discussions such as cost sharing in soil decontamination measures.

At the May 31 Article 100 committee meeting, prior to the vote, JCP member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Kachi Kayoko pointed out that many of the documents submitted to the committee indicated that even after the basic agreement, Hamauzu was deeply involved in the gas plant site purchase negotiations and was fully aware of the progress being made in the negotiations.

Kachi also said that Hamauzu made false statements about his involvement in the negotiations because he sought to evade his responsibility for giving preferential treatment to Tokyo Gas which included an extreme reduction in the company’s share of the cost for cleaning up the contaminated Toyosu site and the immunity from bearing any additional burden associated with a possible increase in the clean-up cost.

The special investigation committee on this day ruled that another former top Tokyo government bureaucrat in charge of the land purchase lied under oath in the committee’s hearing in March.

Past related articles:
> I can’t recall: Ishihara claims at assembly hearing on Toyosu scandal [March 21, 2017]
> Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly to summon ex-Governor Ishihara over Toyosu scandal [February 23 & 28, 2017]