{"id":8115,"date":"2020-07-14T22:31:56","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T22:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=8115"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:38:57","slug":"japanese-lawmaker-accepted-%c2%a51-million-from-chinese-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japanese-lawmaker-accepted-%c2%a51-million-from-chinese-operator","title":{"rendered":"Japanese lawmaker accepted \u00a51 million from Chinese operator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Takaki Shirasuka was one of two lawmakers accused of accepting money from a Chinese casino operator interested in entering the running for Japan\u2019s integrated resorts scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan.- Takaki Shirasuka, a lawmaker and member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, has admitted accepting 1 million yen (US$ 9,325) from a Chinese company interested in participating in the Japan&#8217;s upcoming casino and integrated resorts (IR) developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It comes after a bribery investigation into two Japanese lawmakers who visited the offices of 500.com in Shenzhen and a casino in Macau in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Chinese company covered Shirasuka&#8217;s expenses and paid for his chips at the casino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sources told the Japan Times local prosecutors will not initiate legal action against Shirasuka since he had no authority over the <strong><em><a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-could-delay-ir-licence-process\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">process to grant three IR licences in Japan<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shirasuka\u2019s office issued a release saying he has \u201ccooperated sincerely with investigators and explained during his interviews with them that none of his actions constitute anything illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was accompanied on the Chinese trip by fellow lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto, who has resigned from the Party and is currently on bail after being indicted for bribery after accepting up to 7.6 million yen (US$ 70,871) from the same firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Takaki Shirasuka was one of two lawmakers accused of accepting money from a Chinese casino operator interested in entering the running for Japan\u2019s integrated resorts scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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 lawmaker Takaki Shirasuka admitted receiving 1 million yen from Chinese casino operator 500.com, which sought to participate in Japan's Integrated Resort (IR) scheme. While prosecutors will not pursue charges against Shirasuka due to his lack of authority over IR licensing, this incident is linked to a broader bribery investigation that led to the indictment of fellow lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto. The event underscores ongoing governance and regulatory scrutiny within Japan's nascent IR development.","focusai_entities":"Takaki Shirasuka, 500.com, Tsukasa Akimoto, Liberal Democratic Party, Japan Times","focusai_location":"Japan, Shenzhen, Macau, China","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 specific measures are Japanese authorities implementing to reinforce the integrity and transparency of the Integrated Resort licensing process following these bribery allegations?"},{"label":"Operator Due Diligence","query":"How will this incident influence the due diligence requirements and risk assessment frameworks for international casino operators seeking to enter or expand within the Japanese market?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[22405,473,470],"class_list":["post-8115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-bribery","tag-ir","tag-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115","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=8115"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8133,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115\/revisions\/8133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}