Editorial
Hatoyama should not evade explaining fictitious funding donors
A scandal in which dozens of people, including those deceased, were falsely listed as donors in political funding reports filed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's fund-raising organization could deal a serious blow to his highly popular administration depending on developments.
Prosecutors have begun questioning those falsely listed as donors in response to a criminal complaint filed by a citizens' organization, and are expected to decide whether they can press charges against those involved.
The prime minister has repeatedly provided an explanation of the case and apologized, but opinion polls have shown that he has been far from convincing the public. Nevertheless, Hatoyama has evaded providing any further explanation on the grounds that it could influence prosecutors' investigations into the case.
In June, Prime Minister Hatoyama acknowledged that 94 people, including those deceased, were falsely listed as extending 193 political donations, totaling 21.77 million yen, in his fund-raising organization's political funding reports for 2005 to 2008. These donations were then deleted from the lists and a state-paid secretary responsible for the case was dismissed.
Moreover, his explanations of why such false entries were made in the political fund reports have been inconsistent.
On one occasion, Hatoyama emphasized that the former secretary acted at his own discretion, and explained that the former secretary feared that there were too few donations extended by individual donors and that it could raise suspicions.
However, when reporters pointed out that the prime minister has received more donations from individual donors than other politicians, he said, "I guess the former secretary was desperate because my fund-raising organization had not received many corporate donations."
Moreover, 10 of the "false" donors have told the Mainichi that they did extend donations to Hatoyama's funding group, suggesting that an investigation conducted by his office into the scandal was sloppy.
The largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party is poised to grill Hatoyama over the scandal at an extraordinary Diet session expected to be convened later this month.
On the other hand, the ruling coalition intends to end the session at an early date after deliberating on a limited number of bills, on the grounds that the government places priority on the compilation of a state budget for fiscal 2010. However, it has given rise to speculation that the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) wants to evade being grilled over the scandal. If it is true, its slogan, "politics from the standpoint of the general public," would lose its meaning. It goes without saying that the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office should investigate the case in a fair manner, but Hatoyama should properly respond to the case without evading his responsibility to provide an explanation.
It has also emerged that a political fund-raising body for Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi failed to enter some political donations in its political funding report. Furthermore, it has come to light that a fund management body for Yoshinobu Fujiwara, a DPJ member of the House of Councillors, has had its office rent and utility expenses footed by a construction material firm.
Numerous members of the public voted for the DPJ, sweeping it to power, obviously out of expectations that it will change the way politicians raise their political funds. Politicians should keep in mind that scandals like these cases could damage the public's trust in politics.
(Mainichi Japan) October 7, 2009