A secretary of former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshihiro Nikai was fined ¥1 million Wednesday for making false statements about ¥9 million in political donations by Nishimatsu Construction Co.
Taketoshi Osada, a 63-year-old policy secretary, was fined by the Tokyo Summary Court shortly after prosecutors indicted him for violating political finance laws over the donations to a Liberal Democratic Party branch headed by Nikai.
"It is truly regrettable," Nikai, a Lower House member, said in a statement following the indictment. "I have instructed (my staff) not to allow misunderstandings anymore."
Osada, who was managing the accounts of the branch, divided the donations from Nishimatsu under the names of its employees over three years to 2008 into portions of ¥50,000, the maximum amount for which a donor's name need not be disclosed.
Nishimatsu used the names of 60 employees and their relatives without their consent and donated around ¥3 million each year from 2006 to 2008 to the LDP branch in Nikai's Wakayama No. 3 district, according to the indictment.
A 48-year-old secretary of Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa has already been indicted.