Chino City, Japan, Jan. 3, 2020—Over the past few decades, China has been making inroads to Japan by way of increasing exports of goods manufactured with Japanese technology, buying real estate in rural Japan, sending millions of tourists and other legally-accepted means. In the past few years, with much confidence and putting aside the principle of mutual respect, the Chinese began directly infiltrating into Japanese politics, bribing Japanese lawmakers that are in charge of a grand national casino project espoused by prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Japanese police arrested legislative House Of Representative Tsukasa Akimoto, who is a key member of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party’s integrated resort project, and the Japanese media in late December reported that a Chinese company, 500.com, paid a total of 20 million yen ($190,000) ,smuggled to Japan from China in violation of Japanese law, to five Japanese lawmakers (https://japantoday.com/category/politics/update1-five-other-lawmakers-may-be-involved-in-casino-bribery-scandal). Police also arrested in December a consultant for the Chinese company, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, that once served as a Urazoe City, Okinawa and LDP member, according to the reports.
Akimoto and four other lawmakers, including an incumbent legislative vice minister and a former Abe cabinet LDP member, received the bribes in 2017 through a local tourist agency, the reports said. They were connected closely to Abe’s IR project and functioned as go-betweens between the 500.com and the village office of Rusutsu in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido that is one of localities trying to bid for the IR project. The Rusutsu Report is perhaps the largest Japanese resort area.
The Japanese law on political funds prohibits foreign governments, corporations and individuals to make donations. That the 500.com paid to the five lawmakers in a roundabout way reflects that the company tried to be law-compliant. As of the end of December, Akimoto reported denied receiving bribes from the Chinese company.
Affluent Chinese are purchasing Hokkaido properties including the world-famous ski resort Niseko, their purchases in Niseko clashing head-in with Australian and New Zealanders opening hotels, restaurants and other attractions. Property prices there are as high as those in Tokyo now.
Toshio Aritake