DPJ must cleanse itself: JCP Ichida on arrest of ex-DPJ lawmaker Sato

A former Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives was arrested on March 7 on suspicion of embezzling taxpayers' money.

Sato Kanju, the former head of the DPJ Dietmembers Group, was charged with embezzling about 17 million yen in tax money intended for the salary of a secretary who never worked for him from July 2000 to April 2003, even after other similar cases had been exposed.

He had resigned from the Lower House and had been expelled from the DPJ before he was arrested.

He served as a Home Affairs Minister and was responsible for affairs concerning the Public Election Law and the Political Funds Regulation Law and served as the National Public Safety Commission chair, the post responsible for the nation's police.

In a published statement on the same day, Ichida Tadayoshi, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat head, stated as follows:

"The embezzlement was continuing even after a series of misappropriations of tax money intended for the salary of Dietmembers' secretaries became a major political issue. The Democratic Party has been unable to eliminate such fraud. It cannot make excuse itself due to a mere lack of supervision.

"The arrest of Mr. Sato came as a matter of course. He must be brought to justice.

"The DPJ is called upon to explain why it has been unable to eliminate such an irregularity and take responsibility for it." (end)