A Japanese lawmaker charged with bribery was rearrested Thursday by prosecutors for allegedly offering witnesses money to falsely testify in court in connection with a casino graft scandal.
In a rare development, Tsukasa Akimoto, a 48-year-old House of Representatives member, was rearrested while out on bail after being indicted for receiving 7.6 million yen ($72,000) worth of bribes from a Chinese gambling operator in 2017 and 2018 when he was in charge of Japan's move to legalize casino resorts.
Akimoto, who left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party shortly before his initial arrest in December, denied the latest allegation when he was reached by reporters before being rearrested.
He is suspected of asking a former adviser to the Chinese company 500.com Ltd., who had also been released on bail, to give false testimony in return for 30 million yen through his supporters in June and July, according to the prosecutors.
The prosecutors earlier this month arrested three of Akimoto's supporters and looked into his involvement.
One of the arrested supporters has admitted to conspiring with Akimoto, according to investigative sources, while Akimoto has said, "I'm not involved. I don't know why this happened."
The prosecutors on Thursday searched Akimoto's office and other locations.
The former 500.com adviser, 48-year-old Masahiko Konno, has been indicted on a charge of bribery along with another adviser to the company.
Akimoto, the first incumbent Japanese lawmaker to be indicted in a decade, resumed working as a lawmaker from February after being released on bail.
The Tokyo native became an upper house lawmaker in July 2004 and then a lower house lawmaker in 2012. He oversaw an initiative that legalized casinos to be operated in Japan at so-called integrated resorts with hotels and conference facilities as a senior vice minister in the Cabinet Office for about a year from September 2017.
The government is planning to choose up to three locations for the resort complexes, with the screening process involving casino operators submitting business plans in cooperation with local governments of towns and cities hoping to host such resorts.
The Chinese company had asked Akimoto to increase the number of planned locations to five, sources close to the matter said earlier. It had also expressed an interest in becoming involved in a casino project in Hokkaido.
Opposition parties said Akimoto should quit as a lawmaker immediately while noting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is responsible for Akimoto's appointment as a senior vice minister.
Even an executive of the LDP said, "If the suspicion is true, it is out of the question. We cannot protect (Akimoto)."
A senior lawmaker from the Komeito party, a junior coalition partner for the LDP, said Akimoto "was an LDP lawmaker even though he has left. So (the party) should fulfill its responsibility and recommend his resignation."
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