A senior lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Japan denied Tuesday he registered as his publicly paid secretary a woman who did not work for his office.
Kanju Sato, a 62-year-old House of Representatives member, registered the 51-year-old woman as his secretary from June 2000 through April 2003, acocrding to media reports. The woman allegedly handed over her government-paid salary to Sato in the form of donations.
Following the news reports, Sato met briefly Tuesday morning with DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada to give his version of events. He said the secretary had actually worked for him and the media reports were untrue, Okada told reporters.