Japan Press Weekly

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2007 September 26 - October 2 [POLITICS]

Fukuda received donations from company awarded state contracts

It was revealed that a Liberal Democratic Party branch in Gunma Prefecture headed by Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo received a total of two million yen in political donations during the general elections in 2003 and 2005 from a corporation that the government awarded contracts for road cleaning.

The Public Offices Election Law prohibits companies that have entered into contracts for public works projects with the state from making political donations in national elections.

Fukuda’s branch received from Nisso Kogyo, a Takasaki City-based company, one million yen on October 27, 2003, one day before the announcement of the Lower House election, and another one million yen on September 1, 2005, two days after the announcement of Lower House election, according to its political funds reports.

This company won a one-year contract from the Infrastructure Ministry’s local office on April 1, 2003 and another contract on April 1, 2005.

In reply to Akahata inquiry, Fukuda’s office claimed that it returned the money to the company on September 28.