From: cmr@world.std.com (Charles M Richmond)
Subject: More on the scandal
Organization: Integrated International Systems Corp. One Longfellow Place, Suite 3309, Boston, Ma.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 13:51:55 GMT



	TOKYO (UPI) -- The ruling party agreed Friday to opposition demands
that the former head of a tainted trucking firm join two key politicians
in testifying before lawmakers over their roles in a political payoff
scandal, paving the way for long-stalled budget deliberations to begin.
	Leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and three
opposition groups agreed that Hiroyasu Watanabe, former president of the
Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin Co. and under indictment on a charge of aggravated
breach of trust, would be summoned to the Diet, Japan's Parliament, to
testify under oath, party officials said.
	They had agreed Thursday on the summoning of former Prime Minister
Noboru Takeshita and that disgraced political kingmaker Shin Kamemaru
will be questioned under oath at the hospital where he is undergoing
surgery for glaucoma.
	With time running out Dec. 8 in the extraordinary parliamentary
session, LDP leaders dropped their previous objections to testimony from
78-year-old Kanemaru, who underwent surgery Tuesday on his right eye and
was scheduled for an operation on his left eye next week.
	The dispute over who should be summoned to Parliament to provide
sworn testimony had stalled the convening of the House of
Representatives Budget Committee, responsible for passing a
supplementary budget considered essential to shore up the anemic
economy.
	Finance Minister Tsutomu Hata expressed his irritation with the
delays over the budget calling for an additional $24 billion in spending
on public works projects.
	He urged Parliament to pass the critical plan as soon as possible.
The budget is of keen interest to the United States and other nations
since it is designed to boost Japan's sluggish economy and draw more
imports into the country.
	LDP Secretary General Tamisuke Watanuki said he will go to the
hospital and arrange for the questioning of Kanemaru.
	While the LDP earlier approved Takeshita's testimony, the party
objected to the questioning of Kanemaru, who resigned from the House and
gave up his position as chairman of the LDP's most powerful faction last
month to atone for accepting a dlrs 4 million illegal contribution from
Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin, a now-defunct trucking firm.
	Kanemaru's surgery sparked strong criticism from opposition parties
that his sudden hospitalization at Odawara Municipal Hospital was an
attempt to avoid humiliating testimony at Parliament.
	The opposition camp refused to discuss the budget without the
testimony of the LDP politicians and Watanabe.
	Kanemaru is alleged to have asked Susumu Ishii, the late head of the
second largest crime syndicate, through Watanabe to help stop a rightist
group's harassment of Takeshita in 1987 when Takeshita was seeking the
LDP presidency and premiership.
	Both Kanemaru and Takeshita have been under fire for alleged ties
with mobsters.

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*  Charles Richmond 	Integrated International Systems Corporation        *
*  cmr@world.std.com	(Temporary) cmr@koneko.shr.dec.com		    *
*  Specializing in UNIX, X, Image Processing, and Communications.           *
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan