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Japan govt under fire over donations probe
AFP - Monday, March 9
TOKYO (AFP) - - The Japanese government came under fire on Sunday after a former police chief suggested the ruling party would escape a probe over a donations scandal that has already shaken the opposition.
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The right-hand man to opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa was arrested Tuesday on charges of receiving illegal donations from a construction company.
Ozawa and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) are poised to win the country's next general elections, which must be held before September.
The donations scandal has widened to include the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), after several key figures, including an influential former premier, said they had taken money linked to the same construction firm.
However, news reports have said an anonymous senior government official suggested that the prosecutors' investigation would not involve LDP politicians.
Chief cabinet secretary Takeo Kawamura on Sunday told Japanese reporters that the "senior government official" was former chief of the National Police Agency and now deputy chief cabinet secretary Iwao Uruma.
Uruma "did not say definitively that the probe wouldn't spread to specific party members," Kawamura said in television footage.
But he chastised the deputy chief cabinet secretary for his "comment which could lead to misunderstandings," Jiji Press and other media reported.
Uruma is likely to be summoned to parliament Monday to be questioned about his comments, reports said.
"One has to suspect that the prosecutors and the government have probably had contact," the DPJ's secretary general Yukio Hatoyama told reporters.
"We will certainly pursue that issue" in parliament, Hatoyama said.
Under Japanese law, companies can donate money only to political parties, not to individual politicians, and donors must be clearly identified.
Influential former premier Yoshiro Mori said Thursday that he would return money linked to the Nishimatsu Construction Company involved in the scandal.
Ozawa and his party have denied corruption charges, saying the probe and the arrest of Ozawa's aide are politically motivated ahead of general elections.
But prosecutors are also expected to question accountants for the political group run by trade minister Toshihiro Nikai about the matter, the business daily Nikkei reported Sunday.
Meanwhile, a majority of Japanese voters think Ozawa should take responsibility for the donations affair and resign, a poll showed Sunday.
The DPJ's Hatoyama, who rejected the idea of Ozawa's resignation as party leader when the scandal broke, on Sunday said: "I wouldn't say the issue of resignation won't surface."
"President Ozawa remains confident about his innocence, but of course a new development could occur if a new fact about the scandal comes forth," Hatoyama said.
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