Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said Thursday evening that he had wanted lawmaker Shokei Arai, found hanged at a Tokyo hotel earlier in the day, to clear himself of suspicion of wrongdoing in court rather than take his own life.
"Since he has been claiming innocence, he should have tried to prove it in court," the prime minister told reporters. Arai killed himself just hours before he was to be arrested on suspicion of receiving illegal profits from Nikko Securities Co.
During the Lower House plenary session, Hashimoto also offered his condolences. Arai was a Lower House member from Hashimoto's Liberal Democratic Party. "We pray his soul may rest in peace, whatever circumstances surrounded him," Hashimoto said during the Diet session, where party leaders questioned him about the 1998 policy speech he made Monday.