Japan Press Weekly

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2010 December 1 - 7 [SCANDAL]

Ozawa collects political funds with method of dodging law

A suspicion has arisen that political funds collected by former Democratic Party of Japan president Ozawa Ichiro in 2009 include money donated using a method of evading the Political Fund Control Law.

Ozawa’s political fund-managing organization, Rikuzankai on July 21 provided a total of 449 million yen to 91 DPJ candidates for the House of Representatives general election as election campaign funds, according to the 2009 political funds report submitted to the government by Rikuzankai.

The money that Rikuzankai distributed to these candidates included political donations of 370 million yen from a DPJ branch in Iwate headed by Ozawa.

The DPJ branch on July 21 received a donation of 370 million yen from an Ozawa-related political organization, Forum 21 which had been established as a political organization of the former Japan Renewal Party (dissolved in 1994) led by Ozawa, and all the money was given to Rikuzankai on the following day.

In this regard, there is an allegation against Ozawa of using the DPJ branch as a conduit to receive 370 million yen from Forum 21 in order to get around the Political Fund Control Law.

This is because the law prohibits political organizations from making donations of more than 50 million yen to a politician’s political fund-managing body while it allows a political organization to donate to a political party or its branch without limitation.

Incidentally, the money that Forum 21 used for the donation was a part of political funds that the former Japan Renewal Party left unused. That money contained tax money that was provided as the government subsidy to the Japan Renewal Party.

Ozawa’s political and ethical responsibility in this regard must also be called into question.

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On December 2, DPJ Secretary General Okada Katsuya at a news conference said that if Ozawa used the DPJ branch in Iwate to receive political donations in order to evade the Political Fund Control Law, “it is a matter of concern.”

Okada admitted that funds left by a disbanded political party should be returned to the national treasury. However, regarding the fact that DPJ candidates received money funded by such political funds, Okada took a defiant attitude by saying, “It is not illegal.”
- Akahata, December 1 & 3, 2010