Japan Press Weekly

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2016 August 31 - September 6 [POLITICS]

Okinawa affairs minister charged by prosecutors for speeding

It was learned on September 5 that Tsuruho Yosuke, State Minister in charge of Okinawa Affairs, had been charged by prosecutors for an excessive speed offence just before he assumed office as Cabinet minister.

According to sources close to the investigation authorities, Tsuruho in early July drove 40km/h over the speed limit along an expressway in Osaka. It was during the July Upper House election campaign. The Osaka prefectural police sent the case to the prosecutors’ office in charge of violating the Road Traffic Law.

Tsuruho was first elected to the House of Councilors on the Liberal Democratic Party ticket in 1998 and became a Cabinet minister in August under the third Abe Cabinet. He has a driving record of another speeding violation. In October 2008 in Nagano Prefecture, he was ordered to pay a 70,000 yen fine for exceeding the speed limit.