2 Indicted over Money Scandal Linked to DPJ Lawmaker

Sapporo, March 22 (Jiji Press)--The Sapporo District Public
Prosecutors Office on Monday indicted two people over an election money
scandal linked to Chiyomi Kobayashi, a House of Representatives lawmaker of
the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
The two are Hideki Osada, acting chairman of the teachers' union of
the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, and Michiru Kimura, who is in
charge of accounting for Kobayashi's camp and treasury chief for the
All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers Union's Hokkaido chapter.
Following the indictment of the two, Kobayashi, 41, held a press
conference in Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido, and said that she has
no plan to resign as lawmaker or leave the ruling party. Kobayashi said she
is determined to live up to voters' expectations and fulfill her duties.
But the financial affair is expected to deal a fresh blow to the
DPJ, which leads Japan's three-way ruling coalition, following a money
scandal involving Prime Minister and DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama and
another related to a fund management organization of DPJ Secretary-General
Ichiro Ozawa.
Osada, 50, effectively became the Hokkaido teachers union's top
official after the death of the union's chairman in June 2009 and served as
chief of Kobayashi's campaign team for the Lower House election in August
the same year, in which the DPJ won power from the Liberal Democratic Party.
According to the indictment, Kimura, 46, received 16 million yen in
illegal campaign funds for the election from the teachers union between
December 2008 and July 2009. Of the total, 12 million yen was given from the
chairman of the union, and the remaining 4 million was handed by Osada after
the death of the chairman.
The prosecutors office also indicted the Hokkaido teachers union.
Such organizations as trade unions are banned from providing
political donations to individual politicians under Japan's political funds
control law.
Meanwhile, the office concluded that Kobayashi was not aware of the
transfer of the funds and that she thus did not played a role in the
incident. In the prosecutors office's questioning earlier, Kobayashi said
that she had left the management of her camp's funds up to Kimura, according
to sources close to her.
At Monday's press conference, Kobayashi again denied her knowledge
about the transfer of the election funds to her side.
Osada has remained silent in the prosecutors office's questioning.
Kimura denied part of the allegations, and later refused to answer.
The prosecutors office decided not to indict two other people
arrested over the scandal--Kentaro Koseki, 54, secretary-general of the
teachers union, and Takaaki Nanbu, 52, who is in charge of accounting at the
union--because the roles they played in the incident were not big.
In the August 2009 election, Kobayashi won a Lower House seat for a
second time.