Justice Minister Jinen Nagase's office received a ¥500,000 donation last year from an organization promoting use of cheap foreign labor in Japan, a practice criticized by a U.S. government report on human trafficking practices.

Nagase said a governing Liberal Democratic Party branch office in Toyama Prefecture headed by Nagase accepted the money from the Tomishin international business cooperative association in September last year, shortly before Nagase became justice minister.

At that time he was a deputy chief cabinet secretary under then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.