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On June 24, DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama responded to reporters’ questions at party headquarters.
First, he commented on the allegations that Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Financial Services and Economic and Fiscal Policy Kaoru Yosano had received indirect donations from a dummy organisation fronting for a commodity futures trading company, saying, “This [alleged] incident has taken place while he has been occupying a ministerial position, and so I believe it is important for he himself to first carefully investigate matters and to disclose the facts of the case.” He added, “After he has investigated matters sufficiently he should fulfil his responsibility obligations to the public. We should come to a judgement within the Diet while ascertaining whether or not he is been able to fulfil his responsibility obligations. Hatoyama went on to express the opinion that he did not believe that Yosano had fulfilled those obligations at this point in time.
Hatoyama was asked how he viewed the situation in which LDP election campaign chief Makoto Koga had asked Miyazaki governor Higashikokubaru to run as an LDP candidate in the forthcoming House of Representatives election, thus triggering growing confusion within the ruling party. He responded that he personally thought that Governor Higashikokubaru was working extremely hard, but that was an evaluation confined to his activities as governor of Miyazaki prefecture, and commented, “I believe that the best way for Governor Higashikokubaru to respond to the needs of the people of Miyazaki prefecture would be for him to give his all in obtaining results as governor over the 4 years of his term of office.” At the same time he added, “The LDP have finally descended to this level…I think that it was due to a feeling that there were no good candidates near at hand, and that it would be difficult to fight the election in such a condition that forced [Koga] into such a desperate measure, but it is difficult to imagine that this action will be understand by the people and the inhabitants of Miyazaki prefecture.”
With regard to the government’s decision to approve Japan Post President Nishikawa’s continuation in his post following the return of a portion of the remuneration received by Nishikawa and other top executives, Hatoyama pointed out, “As you know, the people are opposed to what the government is trying to do.” He added that while the government still owned 100% of the shares of Japan Post, “this is in other words a corporation owned by the people” and expressed the opinion that the Japanese people would not be likely to forgive methods such as returning remunerations, which are totally divorced from their intentions regarding this matter.
Hatoyama also commented on ongoing negotiations between the DPJ and the ruling parties over amendments to the law providing assistance to people certified as suffering from Minamata disease, saying, “We have decided to leave things in the hands of the Chair of the Policy Research Committee and the Chair of the Diets Affairs Committee. There is a gap [between the ruling parties’ proposal and the DPJ proposal] but I believe that it is certainly not an unbridgeable one.” He added, “I have heard that there are sympathizers within the LDP toward [the DPJ proposal] regarding the argument of how far to widen the definition of the victims [of the disease covered by the legislation.] Furthermore, with regard to the issue of the Chisso Corporation, I think that discussions on this issue also have reached realistic levels.” Hatoyama went on to stress that it was important to resolve the issue as soon as possible for the sake of those who had suffered for such a long time. He said, “We will work hard to resolve this issue in a form that is close to the direction which my fellow DPJ Diet members have fought for over such a long period” and emphasised that providing redress for the victims of the disease was the first priority, and that he hoped to ensure that the legislation would be acceptable to those concerned, in particular the plaintiffs involved in ongoing lawsuits.
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