The Yomiuri Shimbun
Two state-funded secretaries of a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker donated a total of about 1.7 million yen from their salaries to his political organization between 2004 and 2006, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The two former secretaries of House of Representatives member Mitsu Shimojo told the Yomiuri that his office kept bankbooks and ATM cards for the bank accounts into which their government salaries were paid.
They also said they donated part of their salaries following requests from Shimojo.
The revised law governing salaries for Diet members' secretaries--which came into force in May 2004--stipulates that the salary of state-funded secretaries should be directly paid to them in full and prohibits lawmakers from demanding or coercing state-funded secretaries into donating money.
Shimojo, who was elected in Nagano Constituency No. 2, has denied asking the secretaries to donate money.
"I don't know what the secretaries decided or talked about, but I've never forced or asked them to make donations," he said.
Two of Shimojo's former privately hired secretaries received salaries of about 200,000 yen a month from two construction companies--though they did not work for the firms--between November 2000, before Shimojo was elected to the Diet, and April 2004, after he became a Diet member.
According to the former state-funded secretaries and other sources, one of the two former state-funded secretaries who initially was a privately hired secretary, became a state-funded secretary after Shimojo was first elected to the Diet in November 2003.
At the time, Shimojo reportedly said: "I can't pay salaries that differ among privately hired secretaries. I'd like you to deduct a certain amount of expenses and donate the difference," according to the former secretary.
Shimojo's privately hired secretary was paid about 200,000 yen a month. After becoming a state-funded secretary, however, about 300,000 yen a month was paid into the former secretary's bank account by the government.
However, the former secretary's bankbook and ATM card were kept by another of Shimojo's secretaries who worked in Tokyo, with the monthly salary personally handed over in cash by Shimojo.
Shimojo's political fund reports say the former secretary donated a total of 1,481,374 yen to his boss' political fund-management organization up until August 2005, just before quitting the job.
Bank account records of the former secretary obtained by the Yomiuri show that all the state-paid money and other cash was withdrawn once a month.
The former secretary said: "I never withdrew money from the account. As for the donations, I had no choice but to accept the lawmaker's requests."
The other former state-funded secretary took the job after a House of Representatives election in September 2005, and had donated a total of 218,458 yen to the organization before quitting in around March 2006.
This former secretary also allowed another secretary in Tokyo to keep bankbooks, and received a cash salary from Shimojo.
The former secretary agreed to make the donations because Shimojo reportedly said, "The previous state-funded secretary cooperated in the same way."
The political fund reports say that six state-funded secretaries, including the two contacted by the Yomiuri, donated a total of about 15.12 million yen to Shimojo between 2004 and 2007.
The lower house Secretariat's division in charge of Diet members' affairs said the salaries of state-funded secretaries are legal wages. Therefore, if money was donated against the will of the secretaries, the law has been violated.
The law was revised in the wake of a string of scandals including a case in which accusations of fraud were raised in connection to the salary of a state-funded secretary.
The law now states that state-funded secretaries be paid directly and prohibits soliciting the secretaries to make political donations. Though the stipulations are meant to prevent lawmakers from misusing state-paid secretaries' salaries, the law has no penalty clause for violations.
(Sep. 29, 2009)
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