The Tokyo District Court has fined Shu Goto, a former private secretary of former Lower House lawmaker Mito Kakizawa, a sum of ¥500,000 ($3,200) for violating the election law by offering cash to Koto Ward assembly members during last April's mayoral election.
Judge Masaru Nomura on Tuesday imposed the fine on Goto over his involvement in a scheme directed by Kakizawa, who in March was found guilty of an illegal campaign finance offense and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, suspended for five years.
Kakizawa was a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and had held the post of senior vice justice minister before his resignation last year in the wake of the scandal.
Prosecutors argued that the cash included a request to support former ward mayor Yayoi Kimura, 58, currently on trial for the same offense, and that Goto, 38, was aware of this request. Goto's defense claimed the cash was intended as a campaign gift, and was not a bribe.
After receiving a summary order for the fine in January, Goto appealed and requested a formal trial.
His indictment stated that in February last year, Goto conspired with Kakizawa and others to distribute ¥1.6 million in campaign compensation to eight assembly members to secure Kimura's election.