Nine local politicians in Hiroshima Prefecture admitted to accepting cash from the couple at the center of a vote-buying scandal one after another on Friday.
They are among 40 people, including local assembly members and municipality leaders, whose names were reported in The Yomiuri Shimbun's Friday morning edition as allegedly having been offered cash totaling 16.8 million yen by the Kawais, both Diet members. The nine had denied or been silent on the allegations in interviews with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
In the scandal, Katsuyuki Kawai, 57, a House of Representatives member and former justice minister, and his wife Anri, 46, a House of Councillors member, were arrested on suspicion of providing cash totaling 25.7 million yen to 94 people in the upper house election in July last year.
Out of the nine local politicians, Masaaki Okimune, 69, a Hiroshima municipal assembly member, said at a press conference on Friday that he received a total of 500,000 yen and sent out 3,000 postcards calling for his supporters to support Anri.
"I thought I would support Anri who was deemed to be at a disadvantage [compared to the other candidate of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party]," Okimune explained.
Okimune said that he received an envelope that contained 300,000 yen in cash at his office from Katsuyuki in April last year after Anri was fielded by the party in the Hiroshima prefectural constituency. He was also asked to support her at his house in June last year, at which time he was handed an envelope with 200,000 yen in cash. He did not write a receipt for the total 500,000 yen and used the cash for living expenses.
He said that, acknowledging the cash was intended to buy votes for Anri, he sent his supporters postcards on which he had written his recommendation for her.
In past upper house elections, Okimune had supported Kensei Mizote, 77, another candidate fielded by the LDP in last July's upper house election who lost.
The way in which a series of local politicins have admitted to accepting cash from the couple and bowed in apology can be described as a domino effect.
In a Yomiuri Shimbun telephone interview on Friday morning, Osamu Taniguchi, 73, a Hiroshima municipal assembly member, said angrily, "What are your grounds for writing such a news story?"
However, about one hour later, Taniguchi told reporters surrounding him at the city government building: "I had intended to return the cash, but carelessly forgot to. I had little understanding of the meaning of the cash."
Asked why he denied accepting the cash, Taniguchi said that he was told by prosecutors not to speak to anyone. He refused to resign from his post as a city assembly member as he said that he did not recognize the cash as illegal money.
Masazumi Doi, 54, a member of the Kure municipal assembly in the prefecture, admitted accepting cash of 300,000 yen from Katsuyuki at a press conference in the city government building on Friday.
"I'm sorry to have shamed Hiroshima nationwide and destroyed the credibility of politics," Doi said. "I feel relieved to have disclosed everything."
Mayor crops hair in apology
Hiroshi Kodama, 57, mayor of Aki-Takata in Hiroshima Prefecture, who admitted to accepting 600,000 yen in cash from Katsuyuki, held a press conference on Friday.
The mayor had cropped his hair short to demonstrate his apology, and said, "I'm sorry to have caused trouble."
According to Kodama, he received 300,000 yen in both March and May last year when he was a Hiroshima prefectural assembly member. He put the first 300,000 yen into a bank account of his supporters' group as political funds and repaid the second 300,000 yen.
As to retiring from his post, Kodama said, "I'd like to decide after hearing the opinions of the citizens."
When asked why he cut his hair, he answered, "I though I needed to show that I am reflecting on what I did."
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