A government building housing the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is seen. (Mainichi/Kim Suyeong)

       TOKYO -- A man alleged to have played a key role in brokering coronavirus-related loans that involved a firm not registered as a money-lending business has told prosecutors he provided a total of some 30 million yen (approx. $260,000) to former lawmaker Kiyohiko Toyama over around six years, sources close to the case revealed to the Mainichi Shimbun.

       The revelation came during voluntary questioning of the man, in his 70s, by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation unit. The loan brokering reportedly involved two former secretaries to Toyama, 52, a member of ruling coalition junior partner Komeito and a former House of Representatives lawmaker.

       Political funding reports of political organizations linked to Toyama dating from 2017 to 2019 do not list donations from the man. It is suspected that Toyama continuously received what are considered "secret donations."

       According to sources, the alleged broker is a former adviser to Techno System Co., a solar power-related company in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, whose president was arrested and indicted on fraud and other charges by the special investigation unit. He was also president of an environmental firm and is said to have had a close relationship with Toyama for about six years.

       Toyama reportedly told the special investigation unit during voluntary questioning: "He is a powerful supporter who has assisted me financially for many years."

       In June, the special investigation team searched the man's Tokyo home in connection with the Techno System Co. case, and found descriptions suggesting cash provisions to Toyama among confiscated schedule books and notes going back several years.

       Subsequently, the man reportedly admitted during voluntary questioning by the unit that he handed cash to Toyama on multiple occasions at a club in Tokyo's Ginza district and elsewhere. Of the approximately 30 million yen he gave to Toyama, around 10 million yen (approx. $88,000) was allegedly provided over roughly a year from September 2019, when Toyama was state minister of finance.

       In 2017-2019 political funding reports for three political groups linked to the Toyama, including Toyama Heiwa Seisaku Kenkyusho, a fund-management organization he headed, neither the man's name nor that of his environmental firm was listed among donors to the groups or those purchasing tickets for political fundraising parties. Meanwhile, Techno System Co. donated 1 million yen (about $9,000) to Komeito's House of Representatives proportional representation bloc Kyushu No. 2 general branch in September 2017.

       In August, investigators raided Toyama's home and other locations linked to the man's suspected violation of the Money Lending Business Act. Toyama's two former secretaries allegedly introduced Japan Finance Corporation officials in charge of special coronavirus loans to several companies by phoning the corporation at the request of the man, who was not a registered moneylender.

       During an August Mainichi Shimbun interview, Toyama said he never received cash from the man. But he reportedly confided to those close to him that he did receive funding from the man, but didn't think it was a reward for brokering loans.

       The man in his 70s has also reportedly told the special investigation unit that the "cash was intended to show my support for Toyama as a politician. It wasn't a reward for brokering loans."

       The special investigation team is apparently poised to further probe the cash provision's purpose through inquiries with Toyama.

       (Japanese original by Kazuya Shimura, Yujiro Futamura, Ai Kunimoto and Tomonori Matsuo, Tokyo City News Department)

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