Game Funds Are Focus of Japan Fracas

The Japanese government, trying to defuse opposition attempts to raise a new political scandal, admitted Friday that its ministers had received donations from the pinball industry but said no wrong had been done.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Mayumi Moriyama told reporters that pinball parlors made legal payments of nearly $35,000 to Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and seven of his ministers over a four-year period.

According to Moriyama, pinball parlors bought $3,200 worth of tickets to fund-raising parties given by Kaifu in 1985 and 1986.

Ministers denied they had done any special favors for the pinball industry in return for the money.

The contributions, although legal, are the focus of a new mudslinging battle between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Japan Socialist Party.

The Liberal Democratic Party has focused its attack on allegations that Socialist party members of Parliament favored the pinball industry because of the funds from pro-North Korean organizations in Japan connected with the pinball parlors. Under Japanese law, contributions from foreigners to political parties are illegal.

Korean and Chinese residents own more than half of Japan’s 15,000 pinball parlors.

But the Socialists have lashed back at the Liberals Democrats, saying that ruling-party members received the most money from the groups.

Political analysts said both parties were trying to taint each other’s image by billing the pinball issue as a scandal in advance of general elections that must be held by July.

Pinball in Japan is called pachinko and includes elements of gambling. It has grown into a $60-billion-a-year industry.