{"id":2038,"date":"2020-01-07T12:53:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T12:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:11:17","slug":"japanese-lawmaker-bribe-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japanese-lawmaker-bribe-casino","title":{"rendered":"Japanese lawmaker admits taking casino bribe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japanese lawmaker Mikio Shimoji admitted to accepting a bribe for 2017 general election campaign from a Chinese gambling operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Japan.- The casino bribe scandal in Japan continues to unfold with one lawmaker admitting to taking a bribe during the 2017 general election. After many politicians denied accepting money from casino operators, Mikio Shimoji has taken the decision to come clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Japanese lawmaker admitted to taking a bribe from a Chinese gambling operator back in 2017. He reversed his previous denial and said he received \u20ac8k and saying that he \u201cextremely regrets it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He claims he never tried to persuade any government agency to favour the Chinese company. Moreover, the Japanese lawmaker has made assurances that he will give the casino money back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But others have called for him to resign over the scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a violation of the political funds control law and he should resign,\u201d Japan Innovation Party head Ichiro Matsui said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shimoji himself also said he\u2019ll consider whether to resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Other lawmakers caught up in the accusations have denied wrongdoing. 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

Earlier suspicious activity by a Japanese lawmaker sparked an inquiry<\/a><\/em><\/strong> into alleged bribes being paid to politicians. The lawmaker, Lower House member Tsukasa Akimoto, voluntarily agreed to attend a public hearing and discussed his involvement with a Chinese company hoping enter the country’s gambling market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tokyo prosecutors questioned the Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker over suspected illegality, which he denied.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japanese lawmaker Mikio Shimoji admitted to accepting a bribe for 2017 general election campaign from a Chinese gambling operator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A Japanese lawmaker, Mikio Shimoji, has admitted to accepting an \u20ac8k bribe from a Chinese gambling operator during the 2017 general election campaign, reversing previous denials. This admission is part of an ongoing casino bribe scandal in Japan, which has implicated other politicians who continue to deny wrongdoing, raising significant concerns about regulatory integrity and the future of Japan's Integrated Resort (IR) development.","focusai_entities":"Mikio Shimoji, Chinese gambling operator, Japan Innovation Party, Ichiro Matsui, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Jiji Press news agency, Takeshi Iwaya, Tsukasa Akimoto, Liberal Democratic Party","focusai_location":"Japan, China, Tokyo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Japan IR Impact","query":"What are the immediate and long-term implications of this bribery admission for the progression and regulatory framework of Japan's Integrated Resort development?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement","query":"How will Japanese regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies enhance oversight and anti-corruption measures to restore confidence in the integrity of the IR licensing process?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,16338,439,158],"tags":[96,5343,470,4503],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","tag-asia","tag-corruption","tag-japan","tag-legal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038","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=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777009468,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions\/777009468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}