Photo/Illutration Investigators enter the building of Akita Foods Co.’s office in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, on July 4. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A top official of a leading egg producer in Hiroshima Prefecture gave 5 million yen ($47,800) in cash to the farm minister in 2018 and 2019 to bolster the troubled industry, sources said.

Takamori Yoshikawa, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said he met the official of Akita Foods Co. but denied receiving any money.

“There was no such thing,” Yoshikawa, 70, said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun in November.

The money was not listed in the income and expenditure reports on political funds of his political groups.

However, Yoshikawa released a statement on Dec. 2 that said he has resigned from all posts he held in the LDP. The statement said he has checked into a hospital to focus on treatment of the effects of heart surgery he underwent two years ago.

He will cooperate with investigative authorities if they request an interview, he added.

Akita Foods has been linked to a scandal involving another former Cabinet minister.

Yoshikawa, who represents a constituency in Hokkaido, served as minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries between October 2018 and September 2019 under the Abe administration.

Sources familiar with Akita Foods said the company official handed Yoshikawa 2 million yen in November 2018, 2 million yen in March 2019, and 1 million yen in August 2019 to request his assistance for the egg production industry.

At the time, international animal rights groups were putting pressure on Japanese egg producers to ease the stress of their chickens that have been traditionally raised in cages.

In addition, egg producers were lobbying for an expansion of government subsidies to prepare for a possible drop in egg prices.

The official, who was also a ranking member of an industry group, had repeatedly sought support from Yoshikawa, who had sway in the agricultural sector.

Yoshikawa was elected to the Lower House for the first time in 1996 after serving as a Hokkaido assembly member.

Now in his sixth term as a Lower House member, Yoshikawa was senior acting chief of the LDP’s Election Strategy Headquarters. He also served as head of general affairs of the LDP’s Nikai faction, led by Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the party.

Akita Foods, which is based in Fukuyama, was searched in June by the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in connection with a vote-buying scandal that led to the arrests of former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his wife, Anri, an Upper House member.

The couple are now standing trial over allegations they gave cash gifts to local officials when Anri ran for a seat in last year’s Upper House election.

Akita Foods was founded in 1927. The official believed to have given money to Yoshikawa became representative director of the company in 1966. The official, 87, resigned from the position in August after the Kawai-related search.

The company on Dec. 1 declined to comment on the allegation concerning Yoshikawa.

Asked about the suspicions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a news conference on Dec. 2, “All politicians are required to fulfill their responsibilities for explaining their own actions.” 

But he refrained from commenting further, saying the case is related to investigative activities.

Jun Azumi, chief of the Diet affairs committee of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said the allegations appear to reveal the arrogance and corruption bred by the long-time rule of the LDP-led government.

“If the media reports are correct, the case constitutes a clear violation of the Political Fund Control Law,” he told reporters. 

He added that he plans to pursue the allegations in tandem with the suspected vote-buying by the Kawais.

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