Former construction minister gets 18 months in prison over bribery

The Supreme Court on January 16 rejected an appeal by former Construction Minister Nakamura Kishiro against the two lower courts which found him guilty of accepting bribe money.

Nakamura has lost his seat in the House of Representatives in accordance with the Public Offices Election Law and begin to serve the prison sentence. He will also pay 10-million yen in fines.

The former cabinet member had been charged with taking bribes amounting to 10 million yen in January 1992 from Kajima Corporation, a general contractor construction firm. The money was in return for helping the construction industry evade being charged by the Japan Fair Trade Commission over bid-rigging.

In the House of Representatives, resolutions calling for the resignation of Nakamura had been rejected three times by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi issued the following comment on the conviction:

It is important that the court found Nakamura Kishiro, former construction minister, guilty and forced him out of the Lower House after confirming his acceptance of bribe money from a construction company in exchange for using his influence to prevent the Japan Fair Trade Commission from acting against the company's interest and that the court rejected his claim that the money he received was a legal political donation.

The Supreme Court decision called into question the LDP's character which takes it for granted that accepting donations from companies involved in bidding for public works projects is natural. The task now is for the Diet to immediately prohibit political donations from bidders for public works projects. This is what the four opposition parties are jointly calling for. (end)