Japanese Lawmaker Akimoto Arrested for Bribery over Casino Plan

December 26, 2019

Tokyo- Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday arrested ruling party lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto for allegedly taking 3.7 million yen in bribes, including cash, from a Chinese company that was planning to open a casino resort in Japan.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation team suspects that the 48-year-old member of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, received the bribes in return for favors he did for the Shenzhen-based firm, 500.com, which engages in online lottery and other operations.

Akimoto, a Liberal Democratic Party member elected from a Tokyo constituency, denies the allegations, according to a lawyer. He once served as state minister in charge of casino resorts at the Cabinet Office. He quit the LDP on Wednesday.

He was the first Japanese lawmaker arrested by the special team since January 2010, when then Lower House member Tomohiro Ishikawa was nabbed for allegedly violating the political funds control law over a scandal related to Rikuzankai, a fund management body for political bigwig Ichiro Ozawa, former leader of the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan.

On Wednesday, the special team also searched the local office of Takaki Shirasuka, 44, an LDP member in the Lower House. Shirasuka, elected from a constituency in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, joined Akimoto in visiting 500.com's headquarters in December 2017.

The special team also searched the local office of former Lower House lawmaker Shigeaki Katsunuma, an LDP member, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

Akimoto is suspected of receiving 3 million yen in cash from the 500.com side in Tokyo in late September 2017, when he was state minister at both the Cabinet Office and the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, although he knew that the company was offering the money to get preferential treatment from him for its casino plan.

In mid-February 2018, Akimoto and his family were invited to a tour to the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido by the 500.com side, with the company covering about 700,000 yen in expenses for the trip, including air tickets and accommodations, according to the charges.

The prosecutors also arrested a 37-year-old former executive of 500.com's subsidiary in Tokyo and two advisers at the Chinese firm--Masahiko Konno, 48, and Katsunori Nakazato, 47--for allegedly bribing Akimoto.

The Shenzhen-based company is alleged to have brought millions of yen in cash into Japan without informing customs authorities, in violation of the foreign exchange law.

The firm set up the Tokyo unit in July 2017.

In August the same year, 500.com's chief executive officer and Akimoto delivered speeches at a casino-related symposium in Naha, the capital of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa, one of the nation's tourist hubs. The symposium was organized mainly by Konno and Nakazato.

In January 2018, the Chinese company showed its intention to invest in a tourism company in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, which was planning to open a casino resort in the village of Rusutsu, a major tourist destination.

Akimoto became state minister at the Cabinet Office and at the land ministry in August 2017.

In the October 2018 cabinet shake-up, he was reappointed state minister at the Cabinet Office and assumed a concurrent post of state minister at the Environment Ministry. He served in the posts until September this year.

Over the suspected wrongdoing, Akimoto has told reporters that he had received no money and that he had done "no favors at all" for the Chinese company's side. Jiji Press