JAPAN: Japanese Authorities Arrest Ozawa Associates

JANUARY 16, 2010, 5:03 A.M. ET

By YUKA HAYASHI

TOKYO -- Authorities arrested a member of parliament and close associate of Ichiro Ozawa, a top ruling party official, on suspicion of violating political-funds rules, a development that could seriously hurt the popularity of Tokyo's new center-left government.

Tomohiro Ishikawa, The Democratic Party of Japan, taken from taken from www.dpj.or.jp

As a probe into Mr. Ozawa's fund raising activity widens rapidly, Tomohiro Ishikawa, a 36-year-old lower house member from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan was arrested and taken to a Tokyo jail by a special investigations unit of the Tokyo District Prosecutors' Office late Friday, according to Japanese media reports.

Mr. Ishikawa, a protégé of Mr. Ozawa since becoming his personal secretary while still in college, served as a caretaker of his fund-raising organization in 2004, when alleged irregularities in its financial records first appeared.

Also arrested was a 32-year-old former aide to Mr. Ozawa who

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took over Mr. Ishikawa's job at the fund-raising entity.

Officials for the prosecutors' office and Mr. Ishikawa's office weren't available for comment due to the late hour.

Japanese television networks showed footage of vans reportedly carrying Mr. Ishikawa to a Tokyo jail.

The news of the rare arrest of a current member of parliament is another blow to the waning popular support for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's four-month-old government, which has already suffered from the prime minister's own political-funds scandal. The government's approval rating fell to 48% in late December, compared to 71% when he took office in September, according to a poll by the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun in late December.

According to Japanese media reports, prosecutors say Mr. Ozawa's organization failed to properly record the sources of funds used to purchase a piece of land in Tokyo for 400 million yen ($4.4 million) in 2004 for the purpose of building a staff dormitory.

Mr. Ozawa denied the allegations.

Mr. Hatoyama and DPJ politicians have stood behind Mr. Ozawa, a revered party elder whose election strategies led the party to a landslide victory in national elections last August.

Link to Original Article in The Wall Street Journal