Japanese former minister arrested for vote-buying

Bloomberg

Japanese prosecutors arrested a former justice minister and his lawmaker wife on vote-buying allegations on Thursday, in a fresh blow for troubled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Katsuyuki Kawai resigned from the cabinet in October, less than two months after being appointed, following allegations in a magazine that he was linked to illicit payments made to local politicians and potential voters during his wife Anri Kawai’s successful first campaign for an upper house seat last July.
“It is most regrettable that serving lawmakers who were members of our party were arrested,” Abe told reporters.
“I am keenly aware of my responsibility for the past appointment of the justice minister. I apologise sincerely to the people.”
Anri Kawai has confirmed that she received an unusually large subsidy of 150 million yen ($1.4 million) from Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party ahead of her election. She and her husband have both denied breaking the law, according to the Sankei newspaper and Fuji TV. The two were arrested on allegations of handing a total
of about 25 million yen in cash to local political figures in a bid to secure votes for Anri, Kyodo News reported.