July 7, 2009

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on July 6 warned that the Democratic Party of Japan cannot escape from the allegations about its leader Hatoyama Yukio’s inappropriate political funds collection even though the DPJ-backed candidate won the July 6 Sizuoka gubernatorial election.

“The victory in Shizuoka is one thing, and the alleged illegal fund-raising by Hatoyama is quite another. If the DPJ insists that suspicions over Hatoyama’s fund-raising methods are offset by his victory in Shizuoka, it is tantamount to a blatant attempt to fool the public.”

Pointing out that 80 percent of respondents to the poll conducted by mass media said that Hatoyama’s explanation was not convincing, Ichida said that the Diet should investigate the allegations about Hatoyama as well as Finance Minister Yosano Kaoru and Economy, Trade, and Industry Minister Nikai Toshihiro, who allegedly accepted donations from Nishimatsu Construction Co., Ltd.

Ichida said, “In order to erase people’s distrust of politics, it is very important to have those politicians involved in irregularities take their moral and political responsibility to the public through disclosing the facts at the budget committee meetings in both houses of the Diet. The two ministers as well as former DPJ leader Ozawa Ichiro and current leader Hatoyama Yukio should be summoned to the Diet as sworn witnesses.” - Akahata, July 7, 2009