Japanese PM’s Fund Group Misreported Donations: Report

The fund management group of Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama misreported political donations worth 350 million yen, the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported yesterday.

The Fraternity Association of Politics and Economics received a combined 1.15 billion yen in political donations between 2004 and last year from Hatoyama and his mother’s asset management company. Reports said 900 million yen came from his mother and the remaining 200 million yen belonged to the prime minister.

Two hundred million yen of the fund was reported as having been donated under the names of dead people or those that never made a donation. The report said the fund group exaggerated profits from ticket sales at a fundraiser to 150 million yen in its donation report. Thus, an estimated 350 million yen is thought to have been misreported.

Hatoyama claimed he borrowed the 900 million yen from his mother, but cries of a “gift” transaction has risen due to the absence of a document proving his debt obligations.

Another Japanese daily, the Sankei Shimbun, said that if an investigation finds that the funds from his mother were a gift, he has to pay around 400 million yen in donation tax.

Prosecutors are reportedly considering summoning his mother as a witness. After investigating a former secretary to Hatoyama who led the misreporting, his policy secretary was questioned.

jkmas@donga.com