The president of the Democratic Party of Japan said he is willing to give testimony if he is summoned over allegations in a magazine that he accepted illegal donations of 50 million yen. Yukio Hatoyama, president of the largest opposition party, made his announcement in response to a question during the Diet's first full-scale one-on-one debate between Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and the leaders of the opposition parties on Wednesday. Hatoyama dismissed the claims as a "fabrication" and attempted to turn the tables on Obuchi by suggesting that the prime minister might like to explain to the Diet allegations that his own secretary misappropriated telecom stocks now worth more than 20 billion yen. "Let's get it settled once and for all," Hatoyama told the 40-minute session. "If I'm summoned, I would be willing to attend." Obuchi said he believes the police will launch an investigation into the accusations printed in the Shukan Gendai weekly magazine, adding that all the facts in the case will become clear in court. "There was nothing to be ashamed of," Obuchi said. "Investigative authorities will make this matter clear and we will hear the judgment when (the case) is dealt with in court." The weekly, quoting the widow of the man who reportedly originally held the stock, claimed that Obuchi's secretary misappropriated the stocks without her consent after her husband's death. The one-on-one debate session, modeled on Prime Minister's Question Time in Great Britain, was conducted on a trial basis during the last Diet session. Similar debates are to become a regular feature of Diet proceedings. On Wednesday, Hatoyama and Japanese Communist Party Chairman Tetsuzo Fuwa also attacked Obuchi's policy of funding huge economic-stimulus measures with mountains of bond issues. The opposition leaders argued that structural fiscal reforms are urgently needed to break the government's addiction to bond issues and said Obuchi lacks vision of how to reduce the mounting central and local government debt, which is expected to total 645 trillion yen by the end of fiscal 2000. "If you keep spending 50 trillion yen for public works every year, the debts will never be repaid, not even in 100 years," said Fuwa. Obuchi argued that he is putting an economic recovery before structural reforms, but instead of explaining how he prioritized one over the other, he simply said the government can't do both at once. "You won't catch even one rabbit if you chase after two," he quipped. Hatoyama and Fuwa both argued that fiscal reforms and economic stimulus measures are compatible, calling for drastic cuts in unnecessary public works projects.
