Takeshita Agrees to Questioning by Opposition
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TOKYO — Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita agreed today to submit to three hours of questioning from opposition party members about his role in Japan’s largest postwar political scandal, government officials said.
Takeshita is reportedly ready to acknowledge he accepted more than $750,000 in gifts from the Recruit Co., a publishing conglomerate that rose to the top of Japan’s business world allegedly by bribing politicians.
The Kyodo News Service and most major Japanese news organizations reported today that Takeshita accepted an additional $230,000 donation from a Recruit subsidiary in May, 1987.
Public support for Takeshita has sunk to below 10%, the lowest for any postwar Japanese leader, but the prime minister has vowed to defy mounting calls for his resignation.
The scandal has brought much of Japan’s government to a standstill, including the Parliament, where debate on the 1989 national budget has stopped.
Takeshita reportedly agreed to answer questions on the scandal from opposition party members for three hours during a budget committee meeting Tuesday.
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