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Japan PM says won’t resign over foreign donations

11 March 2011 05:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday he will not resign after acknowledging that his office had unknowingly received donations from a foreign supporter â€” illegal in Japan â€” days after he lost his foreign minister for a similar reason, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Kan explained during a parliamentary committee session that because the donor had a Japanese name, he did not know the individual was a foreign national.
Kan said his campaign office was investigating the matter and would return the money in full if media reports are confirmed. Major daily the Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday that Kan received a total of 1.04 million yen ($12,500) between 2006 and 2009 from a South Korean resident of Japan.
"This person has a Japanese name, and I thought he was a Japanese citizen," said Kan. "I was completely unaware that he was a foreign national."
Political funding laws prohibit lawmakers from accepting donations from foreigners to prevent domestic politics from being influenced by foreign countries.
The news brings further pressure on Kan, whose approval ratings have tumbled below 20 percent amid public dismay over gridlock in parliament. The opposition controls the upper house, making it difficult for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan to pass legislation, including the budget and related bills.
Earlier this week, Seiji Maehara resigned as foreign minister after acknowledging that he received a total of 250,000 yen ($3,000) over the past several years from a 72-year-old Korean woman who has lived most of her life in Japan.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Koreans, many descended from laborers brought forcibly to Japan before and during World War II, live in the country legally but without citizenship. Many were born in Japan and have taken Japanese names and citizenship.
But some Koreans have decided against becoming naturalized as a way to maintain their ethnic identity or as a form of protest against the Japanese government for its past policies.
Kan said the donor was an individual introduced by a friend several years ago. It wasn’t immediately clear if the donor was born in Japan.