Joji Yamamoto

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on Thursday asked Joji Yamamoto, a House of Representatives lawmaker, to report for questioning about his suspected role in misappropriating government salaries paid to two of his secretaries, investigative sources said.

The prosecutors plan to question Yamamoto, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, on suspicion of fraud. Sources close to the lawmaker said Yamamoto would comply with the request.

Special investigators from the prosecutor's office have already taken statements from the two secretaries, one of whom has retired, and other people concerned.

According to investigators, Yamamoto, 37, who represents Tokyo's No. 21 electoral district, is suspected of misappropriating at least 10 million yen paid to two secretaries. Yamamoto hired the first, a policy affairs secretary, in October 1996, but she had not worked as a secretary or appeared in Yamamoto's office for about two years before she resigned in September. Sources said she is now working as a secretary for another DPJ lawmaker.

The government pays a yearly salary of about 10 million yen to the policy secretaries of each lawmaker. The salary is usually deposited in a bank account opened by the lawmaker's office, sources said.

Investigators have found that Yamamoto's office withdrew a total of about 9 million yen of the woman's salary and arbitrarily distributed it to organizations supporting Yamamoto.

However, Yamamoto's office failed to report the contributions to the Home Affairs Ministry, which supervises political funding in accordance with the Political Fund Control Law.

Media reports on Yamamoto's failure to disclose the funds prompted his office to correct his political fund report and submit it to the Tokyo Metropolitan Election Management Office.

Yamamoto was first elected to the Lower House in October 1996 after serving as a secretary to Lower House lawmaker Naoto Kan and as a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member.