Former Justice Minister and House of Representatives member Katsuyuki Kawai, left, and his wife and former House of Councillors member Anri Kawai. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO -- The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on July 6 dropped charges against all of the 100 local assembly members and others who allegedly received cash from former lawmaker couple Katsuyuki and Anri Kawai in a massive vote-buying case in relation to the latter's successful July 2019 House of Councillors election bid.

       While criminal complaints have been filed against the 100 individuals on suspicion of violating the Public Offices Election Act for taking the cash from the couple, the prosecutors apparently concluded that their actions were not malicious enough to deserve criminal responsibility as they were forced to take the money handout, among other reasons. All but one person who later died apparently had their indictment suspended.

       According to the district court ruling against former Justice Minister and ex-House of Representatives member Katsuyuki Kawai, between March and August 2019, 44 people including local assembly members and mayors, 50 individuals linked to his support group and six campaign staffers received cash from Katsuyuki for organizing votes for Anri in the Hiroshima constituency in the July 2019 upper house election. Four of them admitted to colluding with Anri.

       Among them, the maximum handout was 3 million yen (about $27,000) received by former state-paid secretary to ex-financial services minister Shizuka Kamei, followed by 2 million yen (about $18,000) received by Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly member and former assembly speaker Nobuya Okuhara. Most recipients pocketed 100,000 yen (about $902) to 200,000 yen (about $ 1,804) each, with the lowest amount being 50,000 yen (about $451).

       It is extremely unusual for bribe-takers not to be held criminally responsible for receiving 1 million yen (about $9,024) or more. In past vote-buying cases, if the acceptance of tens of thousands of yen in cash was verified, the bribe-takers in many cases faced a summary indictment and a fine.

       Since the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation unit launched an investigation into the couple's vote-buying case in the beginning of 2020, it has questioned all of the 100 bribe recipients, and most of them reportedly admitted to receiving the cash. While the Kawais were indicted in July that year, the Tokyo prosecutors adopted a policy to leave whether to indict the bribe-takers undecided, stating that "Those who need to be indicted have been indicted."

       However, a citizens group filed a criminal complaint against the 100 individuals in September 2020. After the Tokyo District Court handed Anri a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for five years, over the vote-buying case in January this year, and gave a three-year prison sentence to Katsuyuki on June 18, the special investigation unit launched fresh questioning of the 100 people.

       As a result, it has turned out that most of the bribe recipients had not asked for cash but instead the cash had been forced upon them by Katsuyuki, even if they declined. It also emerged that those who received hundreds of thousands of yen had not gone on to bribe others by using the funds as a resource. Given these circumstances, the prosecutors were apparently looking into suspending indictment for the 100 individuals.

       In a hearing of Katsuyuki's trial, his defense counsel argued, "None of the 100 individuals who received the cash have been indicted. It is significantly imbalanced." The court ruling, however, stated that "It cannot be said that it's unfair considering the crime's nature, content and scale."

       (Japanese original by Kazuya Shimura and Ai Kunimoto, Tokyo City News Department)

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