Hatoyama fails to declare 72 mil. yen in income from stock sales

Nov 1 11:23 PM US/Eastern

(AP) - TOKYO, Nov. 2 (Kyodo)—

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama failed to declare 72 million yen in income from stock sales in 2008, his office said Monday.

"There were mishandlings," his aide said. "We amended it and have already paid the tax."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told a press conference, "It is a personal affair of the premier."

The declaration failure may be another headache for Hatoyama, who has already been asked about the alleged falsification of political funds reports, in which some of the listed donors turned out to be dead or deny having made any contributions.

On the misstatement, Hatoyama told the House of Representatives Budget Committee Monday, "I did not realize at all that such a thing had been going on at my office...I have lacked sufficient communication with the people at my office, including the person in charge of accounting."

"I'm sincerely, deeply remorseful about causing this as a result," Hatoyama said at the panel. "I want to apologize once again to the people and to those whom I have caused trouble."

In June, before he took office as prime minister, Hatoyama said an internal probe uncovered 193 cases in which donations of over 50,000 yen by about 90 individuals, or worth a total of 21.77 million yen, had been falsely reported between 2005 and 2008.

He said then that the money was his own but blamed the false entries on his secretary, saying that the aide apparently thought it was alright to do because individual contributions to Hatoyama were small. The secretary has since been dismissed.