January 21, 2014
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2014 January 15 - 21 [TOKYO]
Former PM Hosokawa still fails to reveal his money scandal |
Hosokawa, who was first elected in 1971 as a House of Councilors member of the Liberal Democratic Party, became the prime minister of the coalition government of eight “non-LDP” parties in August 1993. However, the revelation of the money scandal forced him to resign his post in April 1994.
Hosokawa borrowed 100 million yen from Sagawa Express in September 1982, five months before February 1983 when he won the Kumamoto gubernatorial election.
Before the election, a fierce battle was fought between Hosokawa and the incumbent governor, who was seeking his fourth term, to win support from LDP representatives in municipal and prefectural assemblies in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Those who had been involved in the election maneuver on Hosokawa’s side later gave the following testimonies to Akahata:
“We requested hundreds of thousands or even millions of yen for campaign maneuvering. Then all of the sudden in October 1982 we received a huge amount of money and did not have to worry about funding issues.”
“I heard Hosokawa’s secretary say, ‘We have sufficient election funds because Sagawa Kiyoshi (founder of Sagawa Express) gave us money.’”
Based on these testimonies, the Japanese Communist Party in January 1994 in the Diet questioned if Hosokawa had used the “Sagawa money” to win the governor’s seat. This pushed Hosokawa to admit to the allegation. He said in reply, “I needed to borrow the money to prepare for the gubernatorial election.”
However, he refused to have his secretary give sworn testimony in the Diet and resigned without fully revealing the whole picture behind the allegation.
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