Ryutaro Hashimoto

The move is in response to a recent conclusion by a prosecution watchdog that the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office erred when it decided not to charge Hashimoto over the affair.

The prosecutors gave up last year on charging Hashimoto, 67, citing lack of evidence to show that he was involved in the decision by a major Liberal-Democratic Party faction not to report the ¥100 million in 2001.

But in January, the Tokyo Dai-ni (No. 2) Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, an organ charged with reviewing prosecutors' decisions, concluded that the prosecutors gave up on indicting the Lower House member without sufficiently questioning him.

In addition to Hashimoto, the prosecutors recently resumed their questioning of Mikio Aoki, head of the LDP caucus in the Upper House, and Hiromu Nonaka, former LDP secretary-general, after earlier deciding against charging them, the sources said.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 5, 2005
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