Senior LDP Lawmaker Quits Diet Over ScandalMasakuni Murakami, a heavyweight member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), resigned as House of Councillors lawmaker on Monday over his links to scandal-tainted mutual aid foundation KSD.The upper house in a plenary session endorsed Murakami's resignation, which was tendered last Thursday. Murakami allegedly received 50 million yen (431,000 dollars) in cash in 1996 from then KSD head Takao Koseki in exchange for asking questions in parliament on KSD's behalf. Tokyo public prosecutors also suspect a KSD affiliate shouldered 22 million yen (190,000 dollars) in rent for one of Murakami's offices in Tokyo between 1996 and 1998. Murakami's ties with KSD drew fires from Japanese opposition lawmakers after Takao Koyama, a former LDP upper house lawmaker and one-time secretary to Murakami, was arrested January 16 on suspicion of taking bribes from KSD. Murakami resigned as the leader of LDP members in the upper chamber one day before Koyama's arrest, saying he was sorry that one of his support groups had caused trouble. Murakami will testify at the upper house Budget Committee on his ties to KSD as a sworn witness Wednesday, meaning perjury charges can be brought if false testimony is given. Murakami served as labor minister between December 1992 and August 1993 under then Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. He is the second Diet (parliament) member to resign over the KSD scandal following Koyama. Murakami's resignation is expected to deal another blow to embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who is already facing pressure to resign over a series of verbal gaffes and scandals involving his ruling party and government officials. |
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