Email Shows Ex-Japan Wind Chief Urged Lawmaker for Diet Statement

Tokyo, Sept. 9 (Jiji Press)--A former president of Japan Wind Development Co., at the center of a bribery scandal, told executives of the wind power generation firm that he had asked a lawmaker to make a parliamentary statement in connection with the company's operations, informed sources said Saturday.

Masayuki Tsukawaki, 64, sent an email to multiple Japan Wind executives saying that he urged House of Representatives member Masatoshi Akimoto, 48, who was arrested for allegedly receiving bribes, to ask a question in the Diet, Japan's parliament, about a sea area off the coast of Aomori Prefecture, where the company was aiming to start a power generation business.

The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has seized the email as possible evidence of Akimoto having made statements in the Diet at the request of Tsukawaki.

The lawmaker is suspected of receiving a total of around 60 million yen in bribes between March 2019 and June this year from Tsukawaki, after the former president allegedly urged Akimoto multiple times from February 2019 to make parliamentary statements favorable to Japan Wind.

According to the sources, Tsukawaki sent the email in late February 2019 saying that he asked the member of the Diet's lower chamber to ask a question about offshore wind power generation in Mutsu Bay off Aomori Prefecture.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]