Photo/Illutration Agriculture minister Takamori Yoshikawa speaks at a news conference at the prime minister’s office building in October 2018. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A former farm minister who reportedly received cash in return for favors to the egg production industry submitted his resignation as a lawmaker on Dec. 22, citing health reasons.

A statement issued by the office of Takamori Yoshikawa, 70, said he is currently hospitalized to treat a chronic heart problem and is scheduled to have a pacemaker implanted in the coming days.

“It will be difficult to fulfill my responsibilities as a lawmaker and to carry out sufficient activities to respond to the mandate entrusted in me by the voters,” the statement said.

His letter of resignation was submitted to Lower House Speaker Tadamori Oshima on Dec. 22.

The statement made no reference to allegations that when he was agriculture minister between October 2018 and September 2019, he received a total of 5 million yen ($48,000) in cash from the former head of Akita Foods Co., a major egg company based in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture.

He has flatly denied receiving the money.

Yoshikawa was a Hokkaido assemblyman before he won his first term as a Lower House member in 1996. Current Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also won his first Lower House seat in that election.

That connection led to Yoshikawa serving as an official in the campaign headquarters for Suga’s successful run in the LDP presidential election in September.

After The Asahi Shimbun reported on the money exchanges on Dec. 2, Yoshikawa resigned as executive acting chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Election Strategy Committee and stepped down from his executive post in the LDP faction led by Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.

According to Akita Foods sources, the former company head gave Yoshikawa 2 million yen in November 2018 at a Tokyo hotel. In March and August 2019, the money exchange took place in Yoshikawa’s office as agriculture minister, and he received a total of 3 million yen on those two occasions.

The former head said he asked Yoshikawa to have the farm ministry express opposition to an international organization that was pushing to establish animal welfare standards for raising chickens. Japan ended up objecting to the proposed standards, which would have forced Japanese poultry farms to spend large sums on upgrades.

Prosecutors searched the offices of Akita Foods on Dec. 7 and are currently going over the evidence they have gathered, according to sources.

None of the political groups affiliated with Yoshikawa has reported money received from Akita Foods in their annual political fund reports.

A Lower House by-election is expected to be held on April 25 to fill the vacancy in the Hokkaido No. 2 district that Yoshikawa represents.

Koya Nishikawa, another former farm minister with close ties to the former Akita Foods head, resigned as special adviser to the Cabinet on Dec. 8 after the report surfaced about Yoshikawa receiving money from the egg producing company.

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