The e-mail that raised a ruckus in the Diet when the Democratic Party of Japan alleged it proved shady financial links between Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie and a top ruling party figure was in fact the work of a freelance journalist, DPJ sources have admitted.
The sender and recipient of the e-mail were one and the same, a DPJ probe concluded. The journalist passed the e-mail, which allegedly was an order from Horie to subordinates to transfer 30 million yen to a son of Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe, on to DPJ lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata, who brought it up in the Diet on Feb. 16, only to subsequently fail to authenticate it and instead offer to resign.
Nagata is set to apologize at a news conference Tuesday for tying up Diet business with the allegations.