Photo/Illutration Koya Nishikawa, then special adviser to the Cabinet, attends a meeting in November 2020 to discuss ways to have foreign nations eliminate food import restrictions. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A former farm minister has admitted he knew a major egg producer's donations were intended to bribe him.

Koya Nishikawa, 78, has publicly denied any wrongdoing in connection with donations he received from an executive of Akita Foods Co., based in Hiroshima Prefecture.

But in response to questioning by prosecutors in January, Nishikawa admitted that he did not include those donations in the annual political fund reports required of lawmakers because he felt the money was intended as bribes.

Yoshiki Akita, 88, the former head of Akita Foods Co., was found guilty of bribery in October and given a suspended sentence.

When Nishikawa was questioned by prosecutors, he said he received 2 million yen ($18,000) from Akita annually between September 2014 and July 2020.

Nishikawa was named agriculture minister in September 2014 by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

After Nishikawa failed to win re-election in the 2017 Lower House election, he was named as special adviser to the Abe Cabinet.

But Nishikawa resigned abruptly from the post in December 2020 after reports surfaced of suspicious donations from Akita Foods to another former farm minister, Takamori Yoshikawa, who is facing trial on charges of accepting bribes from Akita.

In April, Nishikawa announced that he would not run in this year’s Lower House election, but said he never did anything wrong in connection with the donations from Akita.

Nishikawa, however, admitted to prosecutors that he received a total of about 5 million yen when he served as special adviser to the Abe Cabinet.

He also said that whenever Akita gave him money, Akita always asked for help, not just for Akita Foods, but for the domestic egg industry as a whole.

Nishikawa, long knowledgeable about agriculture policy, set up a meeting between Akita and Yoshikawa, when he was farm minister. 

Akita asked Yoshikawa to help the poultry industry by ensuring the Japanese government would oppose an international organization’s proposal to improve animal welfare standards to reduce the stress of livestock.

Nishikawa also called executives of the government-related Japan Finance Corp. and set up meetings between them and egg producers to make it easier for poultry farmers to receive loans.

Prosecutors never attempted to indict Nishikawa on a simple bribery charge because the statute of limitations had expired for the period when he received the money while he was farm minister.

They also ruled that he did not have strong authority to influence policy when he served as special adviser.

Nishikawa has never responded to questions from The Asahi Shimbun, even after it reported in January that Akita told prosecutors he gave Nishikawa a total of about 15 million yen.

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