Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office members pack cardboard boxes into a car during a raid on a consulting firm headed by former House of Representatives member Kiyohiko Toyama, in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Aug. 4, 2021. (Mainichi/Kazuhiro Toyama)
TOKYO — A man alleged to have managed brokering loans reportedly involving an ex-lawmaker’s former secretary and a firm not registered as a money-lending business has told prosecutors he handed a total of some 10 million yen (about $87,900) to a former Diet member, the Mainichi Shimbun has found.
The man, in his 70s, reportedly provided cash on multiple occasions to former House of Representatives member Kiyohiko Toyama, 52, a member of ruling coalition junior partner Komeito. The cash was allegedly given over about a year starting in September 2019, when Toyama was deputy finance minister.
The revelation came during voluntary questioning of the man by the special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, and they now appear to be carefully examining why the cash was supplied.
The man is a former adviser to Techno System Co., a solar power-related company in Yokohama. The special investigation unit has arrested and indicted members of the company including its president for fraud and other charges.
In August, prosecutors raided Toyama’s home and other locations related to a suspected Money Lending Business Act violation, on the grounds that individuals including Toyama’s former secretary were involved in brokering loans without registering the money-lending business in connection with Japan Finance Corporation’s (JFC) special coronavirus loans. JFC is under the Ministry of Finance’s jurisdiction, and the search warrant’s subject was the alleged broker.
According to involved parties, from April 2020 onwards, the man received requests for quick loans from several companies in financial trouble. He reportedly introduced the companies to JFC officials with the help of Toyama’s former secretary, who he had a close relationship with. The man allegedly took cash from Techno System and other companies and handed it to Toyama.
In all, the man is believed to have brokered about 100 loans, with some of them realized early. While it is possible the cash was a reward for brokering the loans, it is also said that some of the money was provided before the special loan system was established, and prosecutors are carefully investigating why the funds were awarded.
The man told the Mainichi Shimbun he could not discuss the details. When Toyama’s house was raided in August, the ex-lawmaker said he had never received any cash from the man.
Toyama resigned as a legislator in February after a separate scandal.
(Japanese original by Kazuya Shimura, Yujiro Futamura, Ai Kunimoto and Tomonori Matsuo, Tokyo City News Department)
