Kiyoko Ono

The housekeeper stayed at the lawmaker's home in Tokyo's Ota Ward, preparing meals and doing housework.

But Ono claimed: "She worked as a secretary by handling phone calls and doing other things. I entrusted my accountant with handling her salary, so I do not know about her payment."

Ono said at a news conference that the woman was not paid as a housekeeper but as a secretary paid by the Diet Secretariat.

Ono, who was first elected to the Upper House in 1986 and was state minister in charge of the National Public Safety Commission until the Sept. 27 Cabinet reshuffle, said she registered her housekeeper as her first public secretary in 1988 until she lost her Diet seat in July 1998 because she could not find an appropriate person for the job. The woman had worked solely as Ono's housekeeper before 1988.

Ono said she did not register the woman as her secretary when she regained a seat in the Diet in the 2001 election.

The minimum annual salary for a lawmaker's first state-paid secretary is ¥7.3 million, according to the Upper House Secretariat.

The Japan Times Weekly: Oct. 2, 2004
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