LDP lawmaker to step down as 6 arrested for illegal election campaigning

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Takeshi Tokuda on Tuesday signaled his intention to step down following six of his associates, including family members, being arrested on suspicion of involvement in illegal campaigning related to Tokuda's general election campaign in December 2012. Following the arrests, Tokuda, 42, whose house and business headquarters in Tokyo were first raided by investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in September, told LDP Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba that he will leave the ruling party. Tokuda stated that he did not want to bring the ruling LDP into any more disrepute over the election fraud scandal and sources familiar with the matter said that Ishiba would accept Tokuda's resignation as investigations are underway. Police and the prosecutors office said in a statement that the suspects arrested include Tokuda's two elder sisters, two corporate affiliates and four members of medical facilities founded by the Tokushukai Group, which comprises some 60 hospitals and 280 medical facilities and is the biggest such conglomerate in Japan. Tokuda is currently serving his third term as a lower house member and is believed to have paid employees, family members and affiliates inflated bonuses and provided gifts such as air tickets to cover the time they spent campaigning, in direct contravention of the Public Offices Election Law, which prohibits payments being made to campaigners and voters. Tokuda is the second son of Torao Tokuda, 75, who founded the Tokushukai Group. Tokuda senior was not arrested by the police owing to failing health, while Tokuda himself denied having knowledge of the illegal campaigning on his behalf, prosecutors said. The police and prosecutors believe, however, that Tokuda had knowledge of the illegal campaigning as his father also allegedly mobilized hundreds of employees during his own election campaign. Torao Tokuda served as a lower house member between 1990 and 1996 and again between 2000 and 2005. The prosecutors confirmed Tuesday that more than 560 campaigners are suspected of netting a total of 150 million yen ( around 1.5 million U.S. dollars) in illicit rewards for their campaigning services. Tokuda was first elected to the lower house in 2005, and succeeded his father in the Kagoshima Prefecture's No. 2 constituency, but prior to that served as his father's secretary for three years between 2002 and 2005. Officials from the prosecutors office said that investigations will continue to establish definitively the extent to which Tokuda and his father were involved in the election scandal. Tokuda, following an unrelated scandal, resigned in February as parliamentary secretary in charge of infrastructure and transport, following revelation of an extramarital affair.