Komeito's Kiyohiko Toyama is seen here in a file photo taken on March 26, 2019. (Mainichi/Yuki Miyatake)

       TOKYO -- Kiyohiko Toyama, a former lawmaker with ruling coalition junior party Komeito, was indicted without arrest along with three others on Dec. 28 on suspicion of illicitly arranging loans of public money under Japan's coronavirus pandemic business assistance scheme.

       The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigations unit has charged Toyama, 52, with arranging loans to businesses from the government-backed Japan Finance Corp. (JFC) without a lender's license -- a violation of the Money Lending Business Act. According to sources close to the case, Toyama, who formerly sat in the House of Representatives, has admitted to the allegation. He reportedly received some 10 million yen (about $87,000) in thank-you money from the firms involved.

       The last former Komeito lower house lawmaker to be criminally charged by the special investigations unit was Katsuya Ikeda, who in 1989 was indicted without arrest in connection with the Recruit Co. insider trading and corruption scandal.

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

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