Allegations that former farm minister Takamori Yoshikawa received a large amount of cash in return for favors to the egg production industry, which he supervised, have raised serious doubts about the fairness of policymaking.

Yoshikawa himself has to fulfill his responsibility to respond to the allegations. But the government’s integrity cannot be restored unless it assumes a leadership role to get to the bottom of the scandal.

Yoshikawa, who held the agricultural portfolio in former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet, was questioned by prosecutors on suspicion of accepting 5 million yen ($48,270) in cash from the former head of Akita Foods Co., a major egg company based in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture.

The special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is reportedly considering prosecuting Yoshikawa on bribery charges. 

After The Asahi Shimbun reported on the potential payoff scandal on Dec. 2, Yoshikawa resigned from senior posts in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and in the LDP faction led by Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, citing the need for treatment of a chronic heart problem.

But he made no mention about the alleged taking of cash from a business in the agricultural industry.

Earlier this week, Yoshikawa also resigned as a Lower House member, issuing a statement saying he can no longer fulfill his duties as a lawmaker due to his health condition. The statement said he is currently being hospitalized to treat a chronic heart problem and is scheduled to have a pacemaker implanted in the coming days, but made no reference to the allegations.

Yoshikawa deserves to be harshly criticized for refusing to meet his responsibility to answer questions about the serious allegations against him. His resignation does not relieve him of that responsibility.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that the former head of Akita Foods handed Yoshikawa a total of 5 million yen in cash on three occasions between November 2018 and August 2019. Yoshikawa received cash in his ministerial office on two of the three occasions.

Around that time, an international organization was working to establish animal welfare standards for reducing the stress of chickens being raised on farms. 

The former head of the firm asked Yoshikawa to have the farm ministry express opposition to the proposal. In fact, Japan raised an objection to the new draft standards, which would have pushed up production costs for Japanese poultry farms, asking for them to be revised. 

During a recent special meeting of the Lower House Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committee held while the Diet as a whole was out of session, agriculture minister Kotaro Nogami repeatedly defended the ministry’s decision as “reasonable.” But he rejected opposition request for a fact-finding investigation.

Nogami’s attitude does little to help alleviate suspicions that an important policy decision was influenced by money. Besides a prosecutors’ criminal investigation into the matter, there should be an independent attempt by the government to clarify what occurred.

The scandal has also significant political implications for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who served as chief Cabinet secretary for the Abe administration. Both Suga and Yoshikawa won their first terms as Lower House members in a 1996 general election. Yoshikawa headed the secretariat for Suga’s successful campaign in the LDP leadership election in September.

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. Suga handpicked Nishikawa as a special adviser to the Cabinet, a post he also held under the Abe administration. 

Akita Foods allegedly treated Nishikawa to a cruise ship trip, but he has remained mum about his ties to the company.

All the allegations and facts impose on Suga, the chief of the government, a serious duty to uncover the truth to restore public trust in administration. He should provide the effective political leadership to do so.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 24