Prosecutors have asked Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa to submit to voluntary questioning over a controversial land purchase by his fund management body, sources said Wednesday.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office is apparently aiming to clarify a statement by Tomohiro Ishikawa, a DPJ lawmaker who was in charge of clerical work at the fund management body, Rikuzankai, that the money for the purchase came from Ozawa himself, sources said.
They added that Ishikawa, 36, has admitted that more than ¥400 million had not been properly recorded in its political funds reports.
The prosecutors have questioned Ishikawa over the allegation that Rikuzankai did not accurately report how it collected the money to buy a lot in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward in October 2004. Prosecutors are considering indicting him without arrest on a charge of violating the Political Funds Control Law, sources said.
On Tuesday, prosecutors questioned Takanori Okubo, one of Ozawa's former state-paid secretaries, on a voluntary basis in connection with the case, suspecting that more than ¥800 million in revenue and expenditures, including the 2004 land purchase, had not been entered in Rikuzankai's political funds reports.
Okubo, 48, who was Rikuzankai's treasurer at the time, has been on trial in a separate case of accounting irregularities at the fund management body involving alleged illegal donations from Nishimatsu Construction Co.
Rejected proposal
Ichiro Ozawa has rejected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's proposal to shake up government appointments by considering first-time lawmakers for ranking posts.
Democratic Party of Japan officials said Ozawa, a former party leader who currently serves as secretary general, turned down Hatoyama's request that newcomers be considered for new ranking posts within the government.
Ozawa asked Hatoyama to instead consider naming candidates from outside the political sphere for such positions.