BY HIROO SUNAOSHI AND TATSURO SAKATATHE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2009/12/30
A policy study group of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has remained unregistered as a political organization for nearly seven years, enabling it to escape legal requirements for fund reports and donations, The Asahi Shimbun has found.
Hatoyama's side footed much of the group's expenses, estimated at more than 10 million yen a year, sources said.
Failure to register such a group could violate various provisions of the Political Fund Control Law that also extend to policy study groups of Diet members, according to the internal affairs ministry.
Yoshikatsu Nakayama, a special adviser to Hatoyama and the group's acting head, said it was not registered because members regarded it as a "loosely organized" private group.
"But if it is desirable to register it, we must rectify the situation," said Nakayama, a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker. "We will discuss the issue."
The latest suspicion concerning the prime minister's money affairs surfaced as two of his former state-paid aides were indicted last week on charges of violating the Political Fund Control Law.
They are accused of falsifying political fund reports to conceal the flow of money from Hatoyama's mother. Part of the funds, along with Hatoyama's own cash, may have been used for the group.
One of the former aides was in charge of accounting for the group in question, currently named "Seiken Koyaku o Jitsugensuru Kai" (group to carry out election pledges).
The group was formed within the DPJ in February 2003 to strengthen Hatoyama's support base.
Hatoyama had led the group until he became prime minister in September. Akihiro Ohata, a Lower House member, replaced him. It has about 45 members.
Similar policy study groups of former DPJ leaders Ichiro Ozawa and Naoto Kan are registered under the Political Fund Control Law, as are the factions within the opposition Liberal Democratic Party.
Hatoyama's group meets every Thursday when the Diet is in session to discuss policies by inviting speakers.
It also held a seminar at a hotel in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, twice a year. Participants paid for accommodation and travel expenses, but not for renting seminar rooms or lecturers' remunerations, according to sources.
A group source denied ever paying for monthly wining and dining sessions.
The source said the group initially collected membership fees to pay for its office rent. But after the fee was discontinued, Hatoyama's side covered most of the rent and other costs.
However, Hatoyama's fund management organization only reported 500,000 yen in expenses for renting seminar rooms for a 2007 meeting of the group.
Under the political fund law, a politician is allowed to donate up to 1.5 million yen to a political organization a year. Hatoyama's payment for the group could have exceeded the quantitative limit.
Leading members of the group, including Hirofumi Hirano and Sakihito Ozawa, are now Cabinet members.
Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a former supreme public prosecutor, said the unregistered group goes against the spirit of the political fund law aimed at keeping flows of funds under public scrutiny.
An aide to a DPJ lawmaker said the group probably made things "very convenient" for Hatoyama's former aide because there was no need to falsify reports on covert fund flows.(IHT/Asahi: December 30,2009)
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