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Noda hints at resigning as DPJ's Diet affairs chief over e-mail+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 24_(Kyodo) _ The Democratic Party of Japan's Diet affairs chief Yoshihiko Noda hinted Friday at resigning to take responsibility over a row involving an e-mail which a DPJ lawmaker claimed indicated a money transfer to a son of the secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from Takafumi Horie, the disgraced founder of Internet firm Livedoor Co.
Noda, chairman of the main opposition party's Diet Affairs Committee, told reporters in the Diet, "My responsibility over the matter is the heaviest."
He made the remark in response to a reporter's question about how he will take responsibility if there is no evidence to back up the credibility of the e-mail raised by Hisayasu Nagata, a DPJ member of the House of Representatives.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is the LDP president, told reporters "It is up to the DPJ and Mr. Nagata himself to consider" whether the opposition legislator should give up his Diet seat.
But Noda saw no need for Nagata to resign from the legislature, saying, "It is unreasonable if a Diet member who is not a criminal is expelled from the party or forced to give up his seat." Noda also said DPJ President Seiji Maehara does not need to quit.
Noda is known to have allowed Nagata to take up the e-mail matter at a Budget Committee session Feb. 16, claiming the message showed that Horie ordered 30 million yen to be transferred to Takebe's younger son as an election consultancy fee.
Horie, then president of Livedoor, ran unsuccessfully in last year's general election as an LDP-backed independent. Horie was indicted on Feb. 13 for allegedly spreading false financial information and releasing inflated financial figures. Prosecutors served a fresh arrest warrant on Horie on Wednesday on suspicion of falsifying Livedoor's financial figures for the business year through September 2004.
Meanwhile, DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama told reporters separately that party members must assume their respective responsibility for the failure to establish the e-mail's authenticity.
On Thursday, Nagata expressed his intention to resign as a lawmaker. But the DPJ decided at a meeting the same day to give Nagata several days off before deciding what action it will take on the e-mail issue.
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