JAPAN: Hatoyama to resign if facts show he lied about funds scandal

Jan 21 08:11 AM US/Eastern

TOKYO, Jan. 21 (AP) - (Kyodo)—

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Thursday he will resign as a Diet member if he is found to have known about the huge amount of funds his mother provided for his political activities, which came to light in connection with a political donations scandal involving himself.

The remarks came when Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki grilled Hatoyama during a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee -- their first face-off in parliament since Hatoyama took power and Tanigaki became opposition leader last September.

"I swear to God I did not know about them at all," Hatoyama said, when asked if he would step down as prime minister if he is proved to have known about the funds transfer from his mother. "If different facts emerge (that show otherwise), then I have no right to keep wearing my (Diet member's) pin."

Hatoyama also apologized to the people for causing anxieties and problems.

On DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, who is also embroiled in a funds scandal, Hatoyama said that if the party kingpin submits to questioning by prosecutors, which he is now expected to do on Saturday, "the truth will be revealed."

The prime minister later told reporters that now that Ozawa is submitting himself to questioning voluntarily, he hopes that the former party leader will prove his innocence in the case, in which a lawmaker and two others have been arrested over alleged failure to report funds.

Also during the panel meeting, Hatoyama indicated he intends to see how debate develops over a possible revision to the Political Funds Control Law to toughen rules on political funds, saying, "I will do my utmost never to repeat (a similar incident) by calling on each party and grouping to cooperate on the issue of political funds."

As full-fledged debate started at the 150-day regular Diet session on Thursday, Hatoyama also vowed to reach a final conclusion no later than May on where to relocate the U.S. Marines' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa.

Hatoyama later said he will seek to reach an agreement with the United States on the issue by the end of May, telling reporters, "There is no way we can craft a Japanese government proposal without coordinating with the United States."

The remark was an attempt to clear up confusion sown by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, who indicated that a settlement of the row, which has strained Tokyo's relationship with Washington, could take longer.

Hatoyama said he instructed Hirano to make sure a government committee studying the Futemma issue will decide on a relocation site by the deadline. Hirano chairs the panel, which involves Cabinet ministers and the policy chiefs of the DPJ's coalition partners.

Washington has pressed Japan to follow through on a 2006 deal to move the Futemma facility to a less populated part of Okinawa, but Tokyo has been exploring alternatives without excluding the original plan.

Meanwhile, on a mayoral election to be held on Sunday in Nago, Okinawa, the relocation site for Futemma's flight operations agreed on in 2006, Hatoyama indicated that its outcome could have an impact on the government's effort to resolve the Futemma issue.

"It goes without saying that we place importance on the feelings of the people of the prefecture," he told the Budget Committee. "Ultimately, the state will responsibly discuss (issues), including the mayoral election, from scratch and reach an answer."

Two candidates who take opposing stances on Futemma's planned relocation to Nago are vying for the mayoral post, with the incumbent suggesting he will accept the base transfer to the Henoko district in the city.

On Japan Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection this week to rehabilitate itself under court-led restructuring efforts, Hatoyama said the important thing is not to cause customers inconvenience.

JAL employees "must not remain in the previous corporate culture," the prime minister said. The airline "must rehabilitate itself as soon as possible and turn itself into a profitable company."

The ruling and opposition camps have agreed to deliberate on the Hatoyama government's second supplementary budget for the current fiscal year for two more days -- Friday and Monday.

The ruling bloc hopes to get the stimulus measures approved by the Budget Committee and in the lower house's plenary session, both on Monday, with a view to clearing the budget by the end of this month.

The ruling bloc maintains a majority in both houses of the Diet.

The opposition camp has demanded that intensive debate sessions be held on the issues of politics and money, but the ruling bloc has only promised to hold them during the current parliamentary session without specifying when.

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