The Liberal Democratic Party's House of Representatives member Takaki Shirasuka, who admitted to receiving 1 million yen from a Chinese company in connection with the corruption scandal over an envisaged casino-featuring integrated resorts, or IRs, in Japan, used the money to buy a brand name bag as a souvenir, sources familiar with the matter said.
The 45-year-old lower house member from Chiba Constituency No. 13 is also said to have spent some of the money at a casino and brought the rest of it back to Japan.
Shirasuka joined a study tour organized by the Chinese company 500.com from Dec. 27 to 29 of 2017 at the invitation of Tsukasa Akimoto, 48, a lower house member who has now been indicted for bribery over the scandal, according to sources.
Former lower house member Shigeaki Katsunuma, 45, who heads the LDP's Miyagi Prefecture constituency No. 5 chapter, also joined the tour. It is believed that the group's travel expenses were paid for by the company as they visited the headquarters of the Chinese firm in Shenzhen and a casino in Macau.
Shirasuka is believed to have received an envelope containing 1 million yen from Katsunori Nakazato, 48, a former adviser to 500.com, in a shopping mall in Macau on Dec. 28. Katsunuma is also said to have received 1 million yen from Nakazato in the bathroom. Nakazato has been indicted for bribery.
Shirasuka is said to have used the money to buy a Yves Saint Laurent -- a luxury brand -- bag at the mall for several hundred thousand yen. He exchanged the rest of the money for Hong Kong dollars and used it at the casino, then brought the remainder of the cash back to Japan and exchanged it into yen.
Shirasuka admitted to receiving the 1 million yen and purchasing the bag with the money but said he could not recall who he had received the money from, when voluntarily questioned by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
"I deeply regret my behavior," Shirasuka said.
Katsunuma also admitted to receiving the money and said he spent the money to cover living expenses, among other such costs.
"We are cooperating with investigators to the extent of our ability and have told them that we have done nothing wrong to violate the law," Shirasuka's office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Katsunuma's office did not make a comment.
Akimoto oversaw the IR initiative as senior vice minister at the Cabinet Office and has been indicted for allegedly receiving a total of 7.6 million yen, including 1.85 million yen to cover the cost of his study trips to China, from 500.com between September 2017 and February 2018. He has denied these allegations.
Shirasuka, who was not in a government position that had authority over the initiative at the time, was not charged for bribery regarding receiving the 1 million yen or having his travel expenses covered. Katsunuma lost his seat after losing in the lower house election in October 2017.
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