Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Tuesday that he has no recollection of handing a paper bag containing 3 million yen to Kishiro Nakamura, a politician who was convicted of accepting bribes, in 1991 to buy his support to raise antitrust fines.
Nakamura on Monday told the opening session of his appeal before the Tokyo High Court of his 1997 conviction for bribery, that he received the cash in 1991 from then Prime Minister Miyazawa, but was not explicitly told what it was for.
Nakamura, 51, was found guilty of accepting 10 million yen in bribes to stop a Fair Trade Commission investigation into a bid-rigging case in 1992. Miyazawa said Tuesday, however, that he does not remember if he gave 3 million yen in cash to Nakamura.