Tadao Koseki, the former president of scandal-tainted mutual aid foundation KSD, pleaded guilty Friday of bribing two former Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers to use their political influence to push the organization's plan to build a university.
In his first bribery trial hearing before the Tokyo District Court, the 80-year-old KSD founder admitted paying 22.88 million yen to Masakuni Murakami, a former labor minister and one-time LDP heavyweight, and 11.66 million yen to Takao Koyama, a former parliamentary vice labor minister, between 1996 and 2000.
Koseki apologized before the court for his role in the scandal, which rocked the political community. He denied, however, that his actions were prompted by personal interest.