Public prosecutors indicted former House of Councilors member Masakuni Murakami on Wednesday on charges of taking 72 million yen in bribes from KSD, a government-authorized foundation for small businesses.
Murakami, 68, asked a question at a plenary session of the Upper House on Jan. 25, 1996, for the benefit of KSD founder Tadao Koseki, who was planning to establish the Institute of Technologists, the prosecutors said.
A former labor minister, Murakami is suspected of receiving 50 million yen cash in return in October 1996 and having a KSD affiliate pay 22 million yen for his office rent between June 1996 and July 1998, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office said.
Koseki is suspected of handing the 50 million yen to Murakami at the Diet members' building on Oct. 2, 1996. Koseki has admitted that the cash and the rent payment were given as a reward for the question, sources said.
Murakami was labor minister between December 1992 and August 1993 in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. KSD was supervised by the then Labor Ministry, which has since become a part of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
However, Murakami has not admitted receiving the cash and maintains he came to know about the rent payment only after his secretary told him about it, the prosecutors said.