Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2016 January 20 - 26 [POLITICS]

Economy minister Amari suspected of taking bribes

“Did you receive money from the construction company? Didn’t you ever think that that could be illegal?” Japanese Communist Party Tamura Tomoko on January 21 grilled a cabinet minister over bribery allegations at a House of Councilors Audit Committee meeting.

Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira is suspected of accepting bribes from a Chiba-based construction company in return for giving the firm preferential treatment. Reportedly, the Amari side received a total of 12 million yen in cash and in other forms of inducement such as wining and dining him. At least one million yen was allegedly delivered by hand to Amari himself.

A source close to the company has revealed the bribe-giving facts to a weekly magazine along with materials, detailed memos, and recorded data as evidence.

According to the magazine, the building firm had a problem involving road work and land acquisition with the administrative corporation Urban Renaissance Agency (UR). To settle this dispute, the company in 2013 asked Amari’s secretaries and his office in Yamato City in Kanagawa to mediate a meeting with UR officials. As a result, the company was able to receive compensation from UR and provided five million yen to the Amari side as a mediation fee. Another problem arose again between the company and UR the following year. The builder once again asked Amari’s office for mediation, and the negotiations are still going on. The source told the magazine that the president of the building company visited the minister’s office in November 2013 and presented the minister a fancy Japanese confection and an envelope with 500,000 yen. The source also revealed that the firm gave another 500,000 yen directly to Amari at his hometown office in Yamato City in February 2014 as a token of gratitude for his help.

Questioned by Tamura at the Diet meeting, Amari answered, “Three or four people saying they are ardent fans of me visited me at the minister’s office,” admitting to the fact that he had met with people from the construction company.

Under the law punishing public officials for money-for-favors deals, violators are subject to a maximum of three years’ imprisonment.

Tamura pointed to Abe’s responsibility for appointing Amari as a cabinet minister and said, “You as Prime Minister should be held responsible for disclosing all the details pertaining to the allegations.”