Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose has a duty to give a convincing account for the ¥50 million he claims to have received as an interest-free loan "for personal use" from the scandal-tainted Tokushukai hospital group last year. Inose, who was elected governor in December 2012 with a record-high vote tally, says he received the money in November that year shortly after he visited the hospital group's founder and former Lower House member Torao Tokuda to tell him that he was running in the election. He denies that the money was intended as campaign funds, which would have made the loan illegal as it wasn't declared.
Even if Inose's account is true, it is problematic as it means that he borrowed the huge sum as a private loan — without interest or collateral — from the hospital group over which he, when elected Tokyo governor, would have the power to either approve or disapprove its plans to open new hospitals or welfare institutions in Tokyo. Moreover, the ¥50 million was not included in a report on his assets and loans that Inose issued when elected governor — a requirement under the metropolitan government ordinance.
Inose says the money was never touched as it was kept in a bank deposit box belonging to his wife — who died in July this year — and that it was returned to the Tokushukai group in late September after public prosecutors raided the group over suspected massive illegal campaign operations for the founder's son Takeo in the December 2012 Lower House election. But it was only after the story broke in a media report in November that Inose publicly acknowledged receiving and returning the money.