THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 11, 2019 at 16:20 JST
MORIOKA--Tokuichiro Tamazawa, a former farm minister and defense chief, was shot in the leg by an “old friend” over a money problem that started in 1972, police said.
Tamazawa, 81, was being treated at a hospital, but his wounds were not life-threatening, according to his family.
Iwate prefectural police have arrested Hisashi Takahashi, an 82-year-old farmer living in Oshu in the prefecture, who has admitted to shooting Tamazawa at his home in Morioka on Dec. 10.
“I shot several times,” police quoted Takahashi as saying. “(Tamazawa) is an old friend of mine, and we had money trouble.”
Takahashi surrendered to the Morioka-Higashi Police Station around 2:10 p.m. on Dec. 10. He was carrying a revolver loaded with one cartridge.
He was arrested on suspicion of violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law. But police said Dec. 11 they plan to rearrest him on suspicion of attempted murder after judging that he intended to kill Tamazawa.
A website apparently opened by Takahashi said that he had loaned 10 million yen ($92,000) to Tamazawa in 1972, but the money was never repaid.
Takahashi’s lawsuit demanding that the politician return the money was rejected.
The farmer also set up a political group with the intention of recovering the loan. A 78-year-old member of the group said Takahashi had asked permission to use the man’s name in the group’s activities.
Tamazawa is from what was then Taro, Iwate Prefecture and belonged to a debate club at Waseda University in Tokyo.
After serving as an aide to Toshiki Kaifu, who eventually became prime minister, Tamazawa was elected nine times to the Lower House starting in 1976.
He also served as chief of the then Defense Agency as well as agriculture minister.
Tamazawa resigned from the Liberal Democratic Party in 2007 in a scandal over receipts at the party’s Iwate branch office that he headed.
He later returned to the party and retired from politics in 2009.
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Former agriculture minister Tokuichiro Tamazawa attends a speech by a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in Morioka during the Upper House election campaign on July 8. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
