Governor Ishihara and his son dined with disgraced businessman

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Governor Ishihara and his son dined with disgraced businessman

The Akahata Sunday Edition reported that Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro and his third son Hirotaka met with a disgraced businessman with political connections at a luxury Japanese restaurant in Ginza in Tokyo last September, soon after Hirotaka for the first time won a Lower House election.

In reply to the Akahata inquiry, Hirotaka admitted that the meeting had in fact taken place at the invitation of Ishihara's old ally Itoyama Eitaro and that the businessman whom he had never met before had also attended.

The businessman, Mizutani Isao, was involved in a bribery scandal with the former Fukushima prefecture governor, but was only indicted for tax evasion because his case of bribery was barred by prescription.

Mizutani is a former chairman of Mizutani Construction Co. based in Kuwana City in Mie Prefecture and is believed to have been involved in bid-riggings by giving politicians and crime syndicates money made through tax dodges and other means.

Why did Mizutani attend the meeting?

Then Itoyama office's chief secretary said to an Akahata reporter, "A few days before the meeting, Itoyama told me that he was thinking of giving a gift in celebration of Hirotaka's victory, and ordered me to call Mizutani to ask for five million yen."

On the day of the meeting, a woman who had mediated contacts with Mizutani visited the chief secretary and gave him a paper bag. He went on to say, "I did not check the contents of the bag, but I believed it was the five million yen. I passed the bag to another secretary who was in charge of handling money, saying 'This is the five million yen from Mizutani'."

Hirotaka denied the story by saying, "I received no money." Hirotaka's political funds report did not declare that he received donations from Mizutani.

Itoyama also denied it. His secretary said, "Mizutani was present at the meeting, but Itoyama never asked Mizutani for money."

This allegation needs to be investigated.
- Akahata Sunday Edition, December 10, 2006