Photo/Illutration Farm minister Takamori Yoshikawa, center, answers questions at a Lower House Budget Committee session in February 2019. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Tokyo prosecutors have questioned former agriculture minister Takamori Yoshikawa on a voluntary basis over allegations he received 5 million yen ($48,275) to do favors for the egg production industry, sources said Dec. 23.

Prosecutors have already questioned officials of Akita Foods Co., a major egg producing company based in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, and obtained accounting records from the company and related documents from the farm ministry as part of the investigation, the sources said.

Yoshikawa, 70, has denied receiving any money from the company.

However, a former representative of Akita Foods has told prosecutors that he gave money to Yoshikawa when he was farm minister, the sources said.

“I did it for the egg industry,” sources quoted the former top executive, 87, as saying.

He said he asked Yoshikawa to have the farm ministry express opposition to an international organization’s proposal to establish animal welfare standards to reduce the stress of livestock, the sources said.

Japan later objected to the standards, which would have forced Japanese poultry farms to commit to expensive upgrades.

Yoshikawa is believed to have received 2 million yen in November 2018 at a Tokyo hotel from the former company representative, as well as a total of 3 million yen over two meetings at Yoshikawa’s office as agriculture minister in March and August 2019.

Yoshikawa, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, resigned from the Lower House on Dec. 22, citing health problems.

Earlier, he stepped down from his posts in the party, saying he needed hospital treatment for a heart condition.

Prosecutors searched Akita Foods’ offices in July as part of an investigation into a vote-buying scandal that led to the arrests of former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai, 57, and his lawmaker wife, Anri, 47.

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