Indicted ex-Ozawa aide says he will not resign as lawmaker or leave DPJ

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TOKYO, Feb. 9 Kyodo -
Tomohiro Ishikawa, a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker and former aide to DPJ
Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, said Tuesday he will not resign as a lawmaker
or leave the party in the wake of his indictment over funding irregularities in
connection with a land purchase in Tokyo.
In announcing his intention to stay on, Ishikawa said at a press conference
held in the city of Obihiro, Hokkaido, where his constituency is located, that
his supporters have ''strongly encouraged me to go back to the Diet as soon as
possible and start my activity as a representative of this region.''
''I would like to fulfill my given responsibility,'' Ishikawa said.
''I had not received any money from Mizutani Construction Co. (as alleged by
prosecutors) or intentionally falsified funds reports,'' said the 36-year-old
lawmaker.
But the Liberal Democratic Party-led opposition bloc is unlikely to give up its
attack against Ishikawa and expected to continue pursuing in parliament the
funds scandal involving Rikuzankai, a move that could delay the ongoing Diet
deliberations on a fiscal 2010 budget.
Even some senior members in the ruling bloc have also indicated they believe he
should leave the party.
Asked if he thinks Ishikawa should leave the DPJ, Yoshito Sengoku, national
strategy minister and a DPJ lawmaker, said, ''I think he should decide to do
so. If I were he, I would do so.''
Prime Minister and DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama told reporters in the evening,
''Secretary General Ozawa plans to meet with Mr. Ishikawa (sometime soon) so I
think they will come to a decision in that meeting, so I think I need to watch
that.''
Since the indictment, Ozawa has said that Ishikawa does not need to leave the
party or resign, saying that the former secretary was not charged for any act
committed since he became a lawmaker, and told a press conference Monday that
he will meet with Ishikawa once he returns from Hokkaido.
Ishikawa was indicted last Thursday for allegedly failing to log 400 million
yen in income for Ozawa's Rikuzankai funds management body, which was used to
purchase the land in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, in violation of the Political Funds
Control Law.
Earlier Tuesday, Hatoyama also suggested that the DPJ may have to decide on the
future of Ishikawa, if his own decision is ''not enough.''
''If his way of assuming responsibility is not enough, the party may have to
make its own judgment,'' Hatoyama told a session of the House of
Representatives Budget Committee, implying he could move to oust Ishikawa from
the party.
Soon after the indictment, the LDP and some other opposition parties submitted
a resolution to the Diet demanding that Ishikawa resign as a lawmaker, although
Kenji Yamaoka, the DPJ's Diet affairs chief, has indicated he intends not to
hold a vote on the motion.
Ishikawa won his first Diet seat in the lower house in 2007 following the
resignation of a DPJ lawmaker and was reelected in the upper house election
last August, defeating veteran Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shoichi
Nakagawa who is now deceased.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to indict Ozawa due to
insufficient evidence over his involvement in the falsification of the funds
report, while another of Ozawa's former secretaries and a current aide were.
==Kyodo
2010-02-09 23:51:49