{"id":1975,"date":"2020-01-06T12:49:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T12:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=1975"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:13:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:13:42","slug":"japanese-casino-bribe-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japanese-casino-bribe-money","title":{"rendered":"Japanese politicians deny casino bribe accusations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After Japanese politicians were accused of receiving casino bribes, many have come forward to deny statements posted by local media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Japan.- The Japanese media has posted major accusations against local politicians over allegedly receiving bribe money. Reports say that several received bribes from casino lobbyists looking to secure approvals for developments in Hokkaido and Yokohama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media cited undisclosed \u201cinvestigative sources\u201d when targeting five representatives over alleged bribes. However, most of the accused have now stepped forward and denied the accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representative Hiroyuki Nakamura said: \u201cI accepted a legitimate political donation and included the money in a political funds report,\u201d as quoted by the\u00a0Jiji Press<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takeshi Iwaya, former Defence Minister, also denied accusations against him: \u201cI absolutely deny it (\u2026) From the perspective of laws regulating political funds as well, it\u2019s impossible that I got donations from a foreign firm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First accusations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suspicious activity sparked an inquiry<\/a><\/em><\/strong> into a Japanese lawmaker who voluntarily attended questioning. Lower House member Tsukasa Akimoto discussed his involvement with a Chinese company hoping to enter the country\u2019s fledgling casino market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tokyo prosecutors questioned the Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker over suspected illegality, which he denied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspected activity dates back to a symposium on integrated resorts held in August 2017. Akimoto gave the keynote speech at the conference, which the Chinese company attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Japanese lawmaker may have taken part in the intended casino project. Moreover, NHK reports the special investigative team searched an office linked to the affiliate in Tokyo\u2019s Minato Ward and the residences of two former aides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Japanese politicians were accused of receiving casino bribes, many have come forward to deny statements posted by local media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Japanese politicians are facing accusations of receiving bribes from casino lobbyists seeking approvals for Integrated Resort (IR) developments in Hokkaido and Yokohama. While most accused deny the allegations, the investigation into lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto and a Chinese company highlights potential governance issues within Japan's nascent iGaming and land-based casino sector.","focusai_entities":"Hiroyuki Nakamura, Takeshi Iwaya, Jiji Press, Tsukasa Akimoto, Liberal Democratic Party, NHK, Chinese company","focusai_location":"Japan, Hokkaido, Yokohama, Tokyo, Minato Ward","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IR Licensing Impact?","query":"What is the potential impact of these bribery allegations on the timeline and integrity of Japan's Integrated Resort (IR) licensing process?"},{"label":"FDI & B2B Partnerships?","query":"How might these allegations influence foreign direct investment (FDI) and B2B partnership dynamics within Japan's nascent iGaming and land-based casino sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,28,16338,439,158],"tags":[96,29,470,4503],"class_list":["post-1975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","tag-asia","tag-casino","tag-japan","tag-legal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777009467,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions\/777009467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}