Two reformist politicians widely considered free of scandal were forced Wednesday to answer allegations they received illegal contributions from a futures trading company via a dummy entity.
Caught up in the allegations were Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano, a Liberal Democratic Party bigwig at the forefront of the government's fiscal reform efforts, and Yoshimi Watanabe, former administrative reform minister who bolted from the LDP in January after clashing with Prime Minister Taro Aso over the government's slow progress on streamlining the bureaucracy.
According to sources, Tokyo-based H.S. Futures used a dummy political body to provide ¥55.3 million to Yosano and ¥35.4 million to Watanabe in campaign contributions over a period of more than 10 years through 2005. The firm, a commodities futures arm of H.S. Securities Co., was named Orient Trading until 2008.