Three members of the government's advisory panel on city gas market deregulation repeatedly received donations from a gas industry organization, documents obtained by Kyodo News showed Monday.
While the recipients, who are all public university professors, say the Japan Gas Association's donations, which totaled ¥39 million since 2010, did not influence the outcome of the panel meetings, the government did not know about the money given to them as research funding.
Panel member Hirotaka Yamauchi, a professor at the Hitotsubashi University Business School, heads the advisory panel.