A secretary to former Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani had been running a bar in the city of Kochi under the name of an acquaintance and had hired foreign women to work as hostesses without the proper visa status, it was learned Monday.

Police turned their case against the aide, the senior of the politician's two secretaries whose salaries are paid by the state, and four others over to prosecutors the same day. They are suspected of violating the law regulating adult entertainment businesses as well as the immigration control law.

According to police, the 51-year-old secretary and a 57-year-old municipal assemblyman of the city of Nankoku in the prefecture together put up the capital to start the business at the suggestion of Masaharu Ujike, an operator of an adult entertainment establishment who has been arrested and charged with bribing a former Kochi Prefectural Police sergeant.

It is illegal for owners of adult entertainment businesses to use someone else's name when registering for a license. However, the pair used the name of a 51-year-old company employee to receive approval to open the bar in the city of Kochi from the prefecture's public safety commission, according to police.