Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's mother "loaned" him around ¥900 million over five years to 2008 and some of the money may have been recorded as coming from fictitious donors in his political funding reports, sources said Wednesday.
They said the roughly ¥180 million per year over the five years were treated as loans, otherwise Hatoyama would have had to pay a huge gift tax if the money was merely given to him by his 87-year-old mother, Yasuko, the oldest daughter of Bridgestone Corp. founder Shojiro Ishibashi.
A secretary Hatoyama dismissed in June when he first became embroiled in a funds scandal is believed to have made a similar claim, about the funds constituting loans from the mother, during voluntary questioning with prosecutors. The ex-aide had been in charge of managing Hatoyama's political funds.