EDITORIAL: Donations to Hatoyama

Yukio Hatoyama, president of opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), on Tuesday acknowledged fabricated donations and apologized.

Dead people and people who had never made political donations were listed as individual donors in his political fund reports, Hatoyama said.

He still has not provided convincing answers to the many questions about why such a thing occurred.

Hatoyama, who asked four lawyers to look into the allegations, disclosed the results of the investigation conducted during the two weeks since the scandal came to light.

According to Hatoyama's account, over four years starting in 2005, Hatoyama's political fund reports falsely listed the names of about 90 people as donors of more than 21 million yen in total. The documents for years before 2005 are no longer available, he explained.

Hatoyama's state-funded aide in charge of accounting used part of the opposition leader's own money for the nonexistent donations. The aide did so to conceal his failure to collect donations from individuals, Hatoyama said.

Hatoyama claimed the aide, who had served the politician for over 20 years, acted on his own without the knowledge of the Minshuto chief.

Even so, Hatoyama's political fund reports clearly contained false information about donations in violation of the Political Fund Control Law. Hatoyama bears a heavy responsibility for the wrongdoing.

Between 4 million yen and 7 million yen of Hatoyama's money was diverted every year for the misdeed.

Although he is known for his immense personal wealth, Hatoyama's annual income is less than 30 million yen, according to data published Tuesday.

Hatoyama entrusted more than 10 million yen to his aide to cover his personal expenses. But was the money really Hatoyama's? Or did it contain illegal donations whose sources had to be kept secret? There are many other questions that remain unanswered.

According to Hatoyama, he was not aware of how this mixture of his own money and political donations was actually used over many years. Many people must find this explanation unsatisfactory.

The revelation came on the heels of a political funding scandal that led to the arrest of a state-funded aide to Hatoyama's predecessor, Ichiro Ozawa. In response to the earlier scandal, Minshuto vowed to impose a total ban on corporate donations in three years and take measures to increase individual contributions to parties. This is a key plank in Minshuto's campaign platform for the upcoming Lower House election.

But the grim findings about the political fund reports submitted by the Minshuto leader, who is supposed to lead the campaign for reform, have seriously undercut the opposition party's argument for these changes.

It is really distressing to see such an endless series of political fund scandals involving politicians of both the ruling and opposition camps.

All parties excluding the Japanese Communist Party receive about 30 billion yen annually in government subsidies. How can politicians remain so slovenly in the way they handle political donations?

The ruling coalition is gloating over the embarrassing disclosures about Hatoyama's political fund management in the run-up to the Lower House election.

But the ruling parties should not forget that public anger is also directed at them.

Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano is alleged to have received illegal contributions from a futures trading company via an entity used as cover.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai has received dubious donations from scandal-tainted Nishimatsu Construction Co.

But these Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers have yet to offer any substantial explanation about the allegations.

Before criticizing the opposition party, the ruling party should shape up first.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 2(IHT/Asahi: July 3,2009)