Representatives of about 1,500 people taken in by the massive fraud allegedly committed by Upper House member Tatsuo Tomobe on Mar. 11 visited senior politicians from various parties to request measures to help the victims.
The representatives included depositors to Orange Kyosai Kumiai, a mutual aid society run by Tomobe's family, as well as people who worked at the firm's 78 local branches. One representative, Yoshio Mukoudaka of Miyazaki Prefecture, said the victims hope that political parties will help them get their money back.
Without replying to their requests directly, Kanezo Muraoka, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party's diet affairs committee, said the LDP has decided to summon several politicians to the Diet to make them testify about the scandal. The list of people the LDP wants to summon before the Diet includes former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa and former Lower House member Kenichiro Hatsumura as sworn witnesses, and Shinshinto President Ichiro Ozawa and former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu as unsworn witnesses.
The victims also visited Takeo Nishioka, secretary general of Shinshinto, asking him to reimburse money that Tomobe reportedly distributed to Shinshinto politicians.