The Foreign Ministry's former head of logistics for VIP trips abroad pleaded guilty in court Tuesday to defrauding the government out of some 161 million yen by padding expenses of overseas visits by two former prime ministers between 1997 and 1999.
During his first hearing before the Tokyo District Court, Katsutoshi Matsuo, the 56-year-old former head of the now-defunct Overseas Visit Support Division, admitted that he pocketed money from so-called discretionary diplomatic funds.
Matsuo, who was fired by the ministry in January, is accused of defrauding the government out of 506.7 million yen between 1997 and 1999 in connection with 14 overseas trips by Ryutaro Hashimoto and the late Keizo Obuchi.