WORLD : 7 Took Recruit Funds, Kaifu Says
Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu today said seven members of his new 21-member Cabinet had received a total of $327,000 from the company at the center of the Recruit shares-for-favors scandal.
But in reply to a question from a Socialist member, he again denied a recent magazine charge that he himself had taken more cash from the company than he had admitted.
“I received a total of $96,000 from the Recruit Co. over five years in the form of political donations. . . . But there was nothing more,” he said.
Shortly before taking office last August, Kaifu admitted to taking the money between 1983 and 1987.
The weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun last month charged that the prime minister received $175,000 from the company, but Kaifu denied it.
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