A former Japanese junior minister convicted on charges of vote-buying and bribe-taking was found hanged at his home here Saturday in an apparent suicide, police said.
The Tokyo High Court sentenced Yojiro Nakajima, 41, to a two-year prison term last September on bribery charges. He had appealed against the sentence, demanding a suspended term.
Nakajima was convicted of taking five million yen (44,000 dollars) in bribes in connection with the development of naval flying boats from Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. in 1996, when he served as state defense secretary.
A former television newscaster and son of a late education minister, Nakajima was first elected to the lower house in 1992.
In 1996, he was charged with using 20 million yen to buy votes in his reelection campaign. He was arrested in 1998 and gave up his seat in parliament in January 1999.
Nakajima was convicted of defrauding the state of about 10 million yen between December 1996 and January 1998, money that was given to him from tax funds to pay for a secretary -- TOKYO (AFP)
