Kimitaka Kuze, head of the Financial Reconstruction Commission, received 100 million yen from the then president of Daikyo Inc., a leading condominium sales company, to help him fulfill his quota as a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker in recruiting new party members in 1991, his secretary said Saturday.
Tadaichi Asaka, secretary to the 71-year-old House of Councilors member, said the donation was to shoulder party membership fees for about 33,000 potential new LDP members, who were followers of a religious group.
Kuze obtained a list of the 33,000 people from the religious group, which is one of his support bases, so he could use it in fulfilling his quota in recruiting new members, Asaka said.
At that time, LDP legislators were obliged to recruit and collect membership fees from new party members to prepare for the Upper House election in 1992, the secretary said.
The then Daikyo president, an acquaintance of Kuze, shouldered the membership fees, Asaka said.
"I don't know why the president shouldered the payment," he said.
Daikyo spokesman Takeshi Okoshi said Saturday that the company has examined its accounting documents for 1991 and concluded that the company itself did not donate any money to the LDP or Kuze.
"The former president of the company is now out of the country. We hope to meet him to inquire into the circumstances after he returns to Japan," Okoshi said. The president has since resigned from Daikyo, he said.
Kuze has been under fire for receiving benefits, over an extended period, from Mitsubishi Trust & Banking Corp.
Mitsubishi Trust, which is under the FRC's jurisdiction, paid tens of millions of yen for Kuze's office in central Tokyo and to cover staff costs over a six-year period through 1994.