Toothbrush - Disposable toothbrush

Japan Policy & Politics - Ex-dentist lobby chief says LDP official ordered amount of donation

TOKYO, Feb. 9 Kyodo

A former chief of the Japan Dental Association testified in court Wednesday that the association donated 100 million yen in 2001 to the Liberal Democratic Party faction led by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto at the time, deciding on the amount on the basis of instructions by a top LDP official.

In a hearing at the Tokyo District Court, Sadao Usuda, 74, charged with delivering the money to the LDP faction, said, ''The amount of the donation was decided after we were instructed by the LDP's managing executive, Hitoshi Motojuku.''

Answering a question from his defense attorney, Usuda said, ''We did not know how much we should donate in those days as the Hashimoto faction was the largest faction in the LDP with about 100 members.''

Usuda said he instructed former association director Hirotake Uchida, 64, who is also on trial on the same charges, to consult with Motojuku about the amount of the donation.

After seeing Motojuku, Uchida told Usuda that the LDP official said the amount should be about 100 million yen.

The LDP declined to comment on Usuda's testimony.

Usuda and Uchida admitted earlier to having submitted a report to the government without declaring the donation, in violation of the Political Funds Control Law.

The Hashimoto faction did not declare the donation as required by law, and Hashimoto stepped down as faction leader after the donation surfaced in the media.

During the first hearing of the trial on Nov. 4, prosecutors said Usuda gave Hashimoto an envelope containing a check for 100 million yen on July 2, 2001, in a Tokyo restaurant in an attempt to rebuild ties between the dental association and the Hashimoto faction.

Hashimoto received the envelope at the lunch meeting while two influential LDP lawmakers, Hiromu Nonaka and Mikio Aoki, were looking on, according to the prosecutors.

Nonaka, a former LDP secretary general, retired from politics and did not run in last year's general election for the House of Representatives, while Aoki currently heads the LDP caucus in the House of Councillors, the upper house.

The prosecutors have indicted two people -- former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka and Toshiyuki Takigawa, who was the accounting officer in Hashimoto's faction at the time of the donation -- for hiding the 100 million yen donation.

The prosecutors said Muraoka instructed Takigawa not to declare the donation.

Muraoka, who was acting leader of the faction at the time, has pleaded not guilty in his trial at the Tokyo District Court. Takigawa, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced in December to 10 months in prison, suspended for four years.

The prosecutors did not charge Hashimoto or Aoki, citing a lack of evidence. They said Nonaka was involved in the crime but decided against indictment, saying he did not play an active role.