Ozawa not to quit, denies receipts of illegal donations

TOKYO, Jan. 23 Kyodo -
Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa said Saturday he will
not step down as the No. 2 man in the ruling party as he flatly denied receipts
of illegal corporate donations after submitting to questioning by prosecutors
earlier in the day.
In a press conference at a Tokyo hotel where he was questioned for more than
four hours on a voluntary basis, Ozawa said neither he nor his former and
incumbent secretaries has received any illicit money from construction
companies, calling media reports of illegal donations ''groundless.''
In a statement distributed to the media prior to the start of the press
conference, the veteran lawmaker said he ''knows nothing'' about an alleged
false fund report related to a land purchase in 2004 by his fund management
body, for which three of his aides have been arrested.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office apprehended two former secretaries
and a current aide to Ozawa earlier this month, which led to growing public
calls for him to quit as the DPJ's secretary general or as a lawmaker due to
his failure to fully account for his role in the land deal.
It is rare for investigative authorities to question a ruling party secretary
general while in office.
At the news conference, Ozawa apologized to the general public for ''causing
trouble'' and expressed his readiness to provide further explanations to the
people about the fund scandal.
The DPJ heavyweight also said he will continue to cooperate with prosecutors'
investigations.
As a civic group has filed a criminal complaint against Ozawa over his alleged
conspiracy with his aides in the false fund report, the prosecutors are
believed to have conducted the day's questioning by treating Ozawa as a
criminal suspect. He told the press conference that he was given the right to
remain silent during the questioning but did not exercise it.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters after the questioning that he
wants to ''believe in'' Ozawa's innocence.
Hatoyama on Friday avoided saying whether he would keep Ozawa in his present
position after the questioning, but some observers believe regardless of the
premier's decision on whether to retain or sack the No. 2 man, the support base
for his government could be undermined.
The fund management body, called Rikuzankai, allegedly failed to report 400
million yen in income and roughly 352 million yen in expenses, which were made
to purchase land in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, in its political fund report for
2004. The prosecutors reportedly suspect the money used for the land purchase
included illegal donations.
The prosecutors arrested DPJ lawmaker Tomohiro Ishikawa, who was Ozawa's
privately hired secretary at the time of the alleged accounting irregularities,
and Mitsutomo Ikeda, who succeeded Ishikawa as secretary, on Jan. 15 and the
DPJ secretary general's current aide Takanori Okubo on Jan. 16 on suspicion of
violating the Political Funds Control Law over the land deal.
Ishikawa, 36, a House of Representatives member, indicated to the prosecutors
that he conveyed to Ozawa the exclusion of the 400 million yen, which was used
to purchase the land, in the 2004 political fund report, investigative sources
said earlier.
People linked to Mizutani Construction Co. have told the prosecutors that the
Kuwana, Mie Prefecture-based company handed 50 million yen to Ishikawa on Oct.
15, 2004, shortly before the land purchase on Oct. 29 that year, in a bid to
obtain a subcontract for a dam project in the northeastern Japan city of Oshu
in Ozawa's constituency in Iwate Prefecture, the investigative sources said.
Ozawa, a 67-year-old powerful politician, is believed to have had a strong
influence over the selection of companies for public works projects in the
region.
The prosecutors searched several offices, including Ozawa's and those of
general contractor Kajima Corp., on Jan. 13 and some other construction
companies involved in the dam project on Tuesday.
Recent opinion polls by media organizations show about 70 percent of
respondents want Ozawa to quit as DPJ secretary general or as a lawmaker over
the fund scandal.
The public approval rate for the Cabinet of DPJ leader and Prime Minister
Hatoyama has been falling, with a Kyodo News telephone poll conducted shortly
after the arrests of Ozawa's aides showing that the disapproval rate had
surpassed the approval rate for the first time since the launch of the DPJ-led
coalition government four months ago.
Some observers said if Hatoyama decides to remove Ozawa from the secretary
general post, it would anger a group of DPJ lawmakers supporting him, which is
said to be the largest faction within the ruling party, in addition to forcing
the DPJ to review its preparations for this summer's House of Councillors
election that have been led by Ozawa.
If the premier chooses to keep him in the current post, the opposition parties
will intensify their offensive over the fund scandal, they said. The Liberal
Democratic Party, which lost its long-held power to the DPJ last year, and
other opposition parties are calling for Ozawa to be summoned to the Diet as a
witness to testify about the scandal.
==Kyodo