Former Lawmaker Akimoto Denies Accepting Bribes

Jiji Press

17:25 JST, November 25, 2024

TOKYO  (Jiji Press) — Former lawmaker Masatoshi Akimoto on Monday pleaded not guilty to charges of taking bribes from an offshore wind power company over a project in the northeastern prefecture of Aomori.

Akimoto, a 49-year-old former member of the House of Representatives, has been charged with receiving about ¥72 million  in bribes from Masayuki Tsukawaki, a 65-year-old former president of Japan Wind Development Co.

At the first hearing of his trial at the Tokyo District Court, Akimoto said that he received the payment but added that the money was “neither a reward for a job nor a benefit.”

Tsukawaki also pleaded not guilty to bribing Akimoto. He has been charged with giving the former lawmaker about ¥41 million  in bribes, the amount whose three-year statute of limitations has not expired. “It’s completely false that I bribed,” Tsukawaki said.

Akimoto also said he will not contest separate charges of illegally receiving ¥2 million  in COVID-19 relief subsidies.

The offshore wind power project in Aomori, which Japan Wind Development had sought to undertake, could have fallen apart due to its potential impact on a national defense facility, the prosecution said in its initial remarks.

The prosecution said that in February 2019, Akimoto, at the request of Tsukawaki, who was concerned about the fate of the Aomori project, made parliamentary remarks seeking not to regulate it excessively, and drew a response from a government official that is favorable to the company.

The following month, Akimoto received ¥30 million  in interest- and collateral-free loans from Tsukawaki to register with the Japan Racing Association as a horse owner, the prosecution said. Akimoto had told Tsukawaki that he needs ¥30 million  to do so, according to the prosecution.

According to the indictment, Akimoto received about ¥72 million  in bribes from Tsukawaki by June last year after being asked several times by him to make parliamentary questions in favor of the company starting in February 2019.