THE ASAHI SHIMBUN2008/7/28
Prosecutors believe that defense industry figure Naoki Akiyama, arrested last week on suspicion of tax evasion, received about 100 million yen under the table from military equipment trader Yamada Corp., sources said.
Akiyama, 58, executive director of the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange, allegedly received the money from 2003 to 2005 in relation to a government project to dispose of wartime poison gas bombs, they said.
Yamada was a subcontractor for a company working on the project.
The 100 million yen is part of about 232 million yen in income allegedly concealed by Akiyama. He was arrested Thursday on suspicion of evading 74 million yen in taxes by hiding that income.
The 100 million yen provided by Yamada is said to be at the center of a scandal involving Akiyama. In November, it was discovered that Yamada had an in-house document describing the payment of the money.
Akiyama denied receiving the money when he testified in the Diet in January as an unsworn witness regarding a scandal involving the defense equipment company.
It had already been revealed that Akiyama, who served as a conduit between the defense industry and Japanese and U.S. political figures, had obtained a huge amount of money in consultation fees.
But it is the first time the fees have been confirmed to include apparent kickbacks to help a defense firm gain contracts for government projects.
Prosecutors are now investigating whether part of the 100 million yen also went to politicians.
Akiyama received the money from two organizations in four installments during the three-year period, according to investigations by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
One of the two organizations is Yamada International Corp., a U.S. subsidiary of Yamada. The other is a European arm of Avex Aerospace Corp, a U.S. military marketing and consulting firm.
Yamada had an exclusive sales contract with the company at the time.
The 100 million yen was paid into a bank account set up in the name of a dummy company in the United States. The money was later transferred to Japan, becoming part of Akiyama's undeclared income.
In November 2003, Yamada became a subcontractor for Kobe Steel Ltd., which had received orders for a government project to dispose of the former Imperial Japanese Army's poison gas bombs found at the bottom of Kanda Port in Fukuoka Prefecture.
Yamada's subcontract was canceled midway through the project. After this, Yamada hoped to become a subcontractor of Kobe Steel on a different project, and again asked Akiyama to exert his influence.
An in-house Yamada document shows that it paid about 100 million yen to an affiliate of Anzen Hosho Kenkyujo (Security research institute), in which Akiyama is involved, as a cooperation fee for the poison gas-bomb disposal project.
In May, former Yamada executive Motonobu Miyazaki testified at the Diet as a sworn witness that he had instructed a subordinate to send 100 million yen to Akiyama.(IHT/Asahi: July 28,2008)
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