Posted: 04 March 2009 1029 hrsTOKYO: Japan's opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, whose party is favourite to win elections this year, dismissed calls on Wednesday for his resignation a day after a close aide was arrested in a donations scandal.
"I don't have anything to feel guilty about, and my aide acted legally based on the law controlling political funds," the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) told a press conference.
Asked whether he planned to resign, he replied: "I'm not taking any action because of this matter."
The aide was arrested on Tuesday on charges of receiving illegal political donations from a construction company.
The arrest is a blow to the DPJ, which opinion polls show is well ahead of the government of embattled Prime Minister Taro Aso, who must call a general election by September.
Ozawa stressed he had done nothing wrong, saying the investigation "lacks fairness."
"It is impossible in a normal democratic country that the political powers carry out this kind of unfair investigation," he added.
"As I have repeatedly said, we have done nothing that we must feel guilty about. I have reported political funds quite openly, so I don't understand at all why the arrest and the probe occurred."
Under Japanese law, companies can donate money to political parties but not to individual politicians or their fund-raising groups.
- AFP/yb
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