Jun 24 12:15 AM US/Eastern(AP) - TOKYO, June 24 (Kyodo) — A commodities futures trading agency and its affiliates provided a total of 90 million yen in political donations to Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano and former administrative reform minister Yoshimi Watanabe between 1992 and 2005 allegedly through a dummy political body, company and other sources said Wednesday.
It may violate the political funds control law, which bans political donations under the name of a third party.
The Tokyo-based agency, currently called H.S. Futures Co., and its affiliates gave 55.3 million yen to Yosano and 35.4 million yen to Watanabe in total by collecting money through monthly salary deductions from their senior employees, according to the sources.
The political body in question was headed by Yukio Kato, proprietor of the predecessor of H.S. Futures, and the deductions have been suspended since he withdrew from the management around 2005, the sources said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a regular press conference that Yosano will explain the allegations appropriately of his own account.
Yosano himself told reporters in front of his home in Tokyo that the donations were in line with the law.
On Kato, Yosano said the chief of the political body is an old friend of his and that he is not aware that the body is a dummy.
While he received the donation when he was serving as then international trade and industry minister who supervised futures trades, Yosano said he did not have contact with the company at that time and he did not received its petitions.
"I will not return the donation as I received it legally," he said.
Meanwhile, Watanabe, who left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in January in protest against the government's slow progress on streamlining the national public servant system, told reporters separately that he will return the money if it was donated in an illegal manner.
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