OSAKA -- Calls for fundamental changes in how Osaka funds human rights activities are mounting following new allegations of fraud and discoveries of further links involving a disgraced former official representing the "burakumin" community and underworld figures.
In May, Kunihiko Konishi, then head of the Asuka-kai social welfare foundation and a senior official at the Osaka chapter of the Buraku Liberation League, a grouping for descendants of the feudal-era outcast class, was arrested and charged with embezzling 10 million yen from a municipal contract with Asuka-kai.
Since then, hardly a day has gone by without further evidence of Konishi's links to the underworld or discoveries that Osaka, which has done business with Konishi for more than 30 years, failed to properly account for the tax money that was being distributed to his organizations.