Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, demanded on Monday that Liberal Democratic Party executive Shizuka Kamei testify in the Diet on his suspected link to scandal-hit mutual aid foundation KSD.
An official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said last week that Kamei, chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council, asked the ministry's predecessor, the Labor Ministry, in November 1999 to increase government subsidies for a technology institute being promoted by KSD.
However, Hatoyama defended DPJ Secretary General Naoto Kan, who received 1.5 million yen from KSD between 1994 and 1996 in the form of fundraising coupons for New Party Sakigake, to which he belonged.