According to the reports, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politician Tsukasa Akimoto, was arrested for receiving cash from a Chinese company, without letting the customs authorities know anything about it. The Chinese company headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen (whose name was not published in any of the news reports) was interested in investing in the country’s casino industry and is suspected of smuggling several million yen in cash into the country.
However, both the Tokyo prosecutors and the Akimoto’s office refused to comment on anything about the news and declined even to know anything about it. Akimoto used his Twitter handle and tweeted in support of his statement and repeatedly denied any wrongdoings and also denied his involvement in any kind of smuggling.
Earlier Akimoto had served as a vice-minister in the Cabinet office, and he was in charge of promoting casinos in the country until October 2018. Therefore, this accusation against him posed a serious blow to the government’s tireless efforts to bolster the casino industry in the country. According to the parliamentary affairs chief for the opposition Democratic Party For the People, Kazuhiro Haraguchi,
